The Goodrich Family

catching up

2011-11-27T17:13:00.000-08:00

I realized today that I frequently look at my friends blogs wishing they would update them so I could know what they are up to. It rarely occurs to me that I haven't updated mine in a long time either! So here I am letting everyone who looks at this know what we are up to. I can't believe I haven't even blogged about halloween! Here's a cute picture of our little piggy!

Evelynn had the best time trick or treating. She was way better at it than I thought she would be too. She walked right up to the door stuck her little hand out and said "treat". Everyone thought she was pretty cute. They would put some candy in her hand, she would go over to her bag and stick it in and turn right back around to ask for another treat. She got triple treats at most houses! The next day we went for a walk with Tonka and she couldn't understand why we weren't stopping to ask for more candy. It is so fun to be a Mom!

Not a whole lot else has been going on around here. We had a fun Thanksgiving. We had a couple friends over to our house so I only had to make a couple things for dinner. It is nice to have friends to spend the holidays with when family isn't around. We let the kids play and we all ate as much as we could. I promised myself I would take some pictures this year and once again I forgot. So no fun pictures of our Thanksgiving. In just a couple weeks we will be heading to Colorado for Christmas and we are pretty excited for a little vacation. Also 2 of my best friends had babies in the past couple months and I can't wait to meet their little girls!! Well I hope to update this sooner next time! Until then.. Happy Holidays!

finally

2011-10-09T20:04:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to blogging again! The hard drive on our computer has been full for forever and we finally just put all our pictures on the external hard drive. Which means I can post new pictures now!! We have had a really awesome summer. It's hard to believe it's over already. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the summer that I never got around to posting.

The 4th of July

this can is empty by the way!

Just a couple weekends ago Preston took a Monday off and we headed up to Gettysburg. It was a fun little vacation and we learned so much while we were there. Next time anyone comes to visit us we will have to take them up there. History is kinda cool!

At the end of September we took a vacation to the beach with 2 other families. I am still waiting on some photos from those girls before I put them up. That vacation deserves a post of it's own. :) Hope you liked the pics!

Evelynn is ONE!!

2011-08-17T18:26:00.000-07:00

Evelynn has been one for over a month now. I know this is really late! Her birthday was July 7th and it was a really fun day. Kids birthdays are so much fun! The Saturday before she turned one we threw her a little party at the pool with some of our good friends. We took a grill down to our neighborhood pool and had a barbeque. It was a good time. Thanks to all our friends who made it a special day. Here's some pictures of our little girls big day.

We love you so much Evelynn and we can't imagine our family with out you!! HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY!!

I know I know

2011-07-03T18:33:00.000-07:00

I have been really bad at blogging! I keep meaning to blog about something and then I get busy and forget. So much has been going on here! Thank goodness we have cameras or else I would never remember what we have be doing the past couple months. Here are some pictures of a Triathlon Preston did a couple months ago.

He came in 18th place. I think he was really hoping to be in the top 10 but 18th is pretty good for someone who wasn't able to train much for it. Evie and I were so proud of him!

I don't think that I mentioned that Preston started a new job about a month ago. He is now an Executive Officer which is pretty much a secretary to a General. It's longer hours and a lot of work. Most of the time he doesn't get home till after 8 which is usually after Evie has already gone to bed. Needless to say it is going to be a very long year for all of us but it's only a year long position and we will all make the best of our weekends together!

A couple weekends ago we were able to go visit some of our friends that live in Boston. We were only there for 3 days but we had a lot of fun. Preston went on a crazy hike to the summit of Mt. Washington. They had to come back early because the weather was so cold. His hands were so swollen from the cold weather! It's hard to explain how gross they looked and a picture doesn't do enough justice for them. I'm happy to say that his hands are back to normal size now and despite him being sure he got stretch marks from how big they got, he didn't and they are fine!

We went to down town Boston the last day we were there. It was so fun. We had some awesome pizza and then just walked around. There were cute little carousels everywhere so we let the girls ride one. Evie LOVED it. She liked sitting on the horse but wanted off until it started moving then she had so much fun! She is so cute! Nicole and I even went to a little Carnival they had on base there one night. There were lots of kids rides, music and food. The weather wasn't great but we made the most of it and were glad we went. I'm sad I didn't get any pictures there. We had a really good time in Boston and were glad we made it out there since our friends are leaving for Germany in a couple months. We will have to go there to see them next time I guess.

These are 3 cute little girls!!

Ok.. this post is long enough so I am going to cut it off. We threw Evies birthday party yesterday so I will post about that sometime this week!! Probably after her real birthday which is on Thursday. I can't believe she is going to be 1 already. She is walking now too! It all happens so fast! Here is just a cute little video of her that I took the other day and a cute picture. We love this girl to death!

OH EVIE!!

2011-05-08T18:40:00.000-07:00

Evie is getting more and more fun everyday! She is learning things so fast! The other day she found this toy and just went for it. Take a look!

She is now a pro at walking with this toy!! We can't even believe that before to long she will be walking all by herself!

A couple weeks ago I took some 9 month/Easter pictures of her and I am just now getting around to posting them. Sorry! She is now 10 months and it is still crazy to me that in 2 months we will have a 1 year old!

At Evie's 9 month check up she weighed 17.3 pounds and was 27 inches long. What a little cutie huh!! She eats like a horse and finds new ways to bug Tonka every day. She is a master at climbing the stairs and waves like a beauty queen. She loves to play this game where you lay her on the bed and she will dive off knowing you will catch her. Hopefully someone is always there to catch her. She says Mama now and I LOVE IT! :) When she really starts talking she is never going to stop. She just jabbers all day long. I think Tonka even thinks it's to much. She loves going to the gym with mom and playing on all the cool toys they have there for her. Her blanket is one of her best friends and the most excited she gets is when Dad walks through the front door. Baths are still awesome and we have recently found that she loves the beach. We love this girl!

another vaction one!

2011-04-25T19:24:00.000-07:00

Here are some videos from our beach trip. They are kinda noisy cause it was so windy... sorry!

This one is obviously not from the beach.. but super cute! We love it when she laughs!

Little Vacations

2011-04-25T18:27:00.000-07:00

This last week my best friend Nina has been out to visit so we decided to spend the weekend at Virginia Beach. The weather was awesome! We ate good food, shopped and spent lots of time playing in the sand. Evie LOVED the ocean. She had more fun than any of us I think. So.. I know there is a picture overload, but ENJOY!

Preston has always said that he can't wait to have kids to play with at the ocean. This is a picture of two very happy kids.

Evie ate tons of sand so we have been dealing with sandy poops for the last couple of diapers! :) What can you do right?!? We sure love this girl!!

so cute!

2011-03-26T18:33:00.000-07:00

It's just impossible to not laugh along with this video!!

a safe place for Tonka

2011-03-08T18:54:00.000-08:00

FINALLY!! Tonka found a safe place to go where Evie can't pull his hair out, poke him in the eye and steal his toys! She still tries though! Doesn't he look so peaceful. Good for you Tonka Boy!

This Ones For Daddy

2011-03-06T20:49:00.000-08:00

We sure miss you! Evie can't wait to show off her new skills for you in person! Hope you like the preview. Can't wait to see you this weekend!!

a little bit of everything

2011-02-27T18:32:00.000-08:00

So Evie and I are back home in Virginia now. We miss Preston a lot but we are so glad to be home. I was anxious to come home because I have piles of projects I am working on and need to finish so I can move on to another pile of projects. One of my new years resolutions is to make 1 craft each month for my house. Why not right?? It has been fun finding ways to be creative and even more fun making my house feel more like a home each day. I have found myself getting a little crazy though. I say 1 craft a month but it has been more like 4 a month so far. Anyway I am going to try not to get to far ahead of myself for the rest of the year. Here are my month of January and February projects.

month of January

This picture is new so for the month of February I made these orange pillows to match

The other evening I made some cookies and Evie was not going to let me get away without giving her one so I did. She LOVED that cookie! It was so funny watching just how happy that cookie made her. I laughed the whole time. She is so much fun! SO CUTE!!

The other day a friend of ours from our ward gave us a couple new toys! Evie is getting so big and a little bored of her old toys so it was so nice of her to give us some new ones. This is a bouncer. She loves it! She is a good little driver too!! Look how happy she is! Melts my heart!

Evelynn is also already a little ham. The second I pull out the camera shes all smiles! She is crawling now so whenever she hears the camera turn on she turns and crawls right towards it! She is getting so good at crawling and it is keeping me on my toes! She also loves Tonka even more now. He is her number one toy. She crawls over to him, pulls his hair, pokes his eyes and tugs on his ears, which are always sore to begin with, before she decides to take the toy he was playing with away from him. He is so good with her though and very gently gets his toy back. Unfortunately for Tonka he only keeps it for a couple mins until she can crawl back to where he is and take his toy again. They are so cute together!

attacking Tonka

got his toy.. again

Valentines Day

2011-02-15T19:03:00.000-08:00

We had a very low key Valentines Day this year. Preston is doing some more training in Alabama right now so Evelynn and I have spent the last 3 weeks out there with him. Needless to say, our V-Day was pretty much just dinner. We went to Texas Road House, super early so we didn't have to be there through the rush. Then went back home and ate the cheese cake I made for Preston earlier that day. He loves cheese cake!! We have so much fun just hanging out with our little girl. We were saying just the other day that we know we should probably go on dates without her more often, but we both like it when she is there so much that it's hard to make the effort to find a sitter!! She is so fun to be around!

And this is just a funny picture of our silly baby! She looks so cool huh! How could you not want to spend a whole day with this!! :)

6 month check up

2011-01-29T19:12:00.000-08:00

Our baby is a healthy little girl. She weighs 15.7 which is somewhere in between the 25th and the 50th percentile and she is 26 inches long with is 50th percentile. She has a little bit of eczema so the doctor gave us some stuff to clear that up but that is the only problem she has ever had in her whole little life. We are truly blessed to have a happy and healthy little girl. She is perfect!

Evie loves her daddy! She is just about to start crawling. She gets all the way up on her hands and knees and you can just tell that in her little mind she knows there is another step after that but hasn't figured out how to get there yet. :) I don't think I am ready for her to start crawling.. she is busy enough with out moving! She is curious about everything. She has started talking.. well that's what we call it. She will grunt at things she want and likes to talk to you. When Preston comes home she will have a 5 min conversation like that with him and then it's on to something else!! She just recently started reaching for other people when you are holding her. She does it to anyone that stops to talk to her which I don't care for to much cause then random people in the groceries store think that she wants them to hold her. I don't like that they take her from me very much.. haha.. but it's pretty cute I guess. She is a social bug! We love her! I can't believe it but she is actually going to be 7 months old in about a week! She is growing toooooo fast! She is more fun everyday and I am the luckiest person on earth to get to spend every minute of my day with her!

6 months old

2011-01-13T18:31:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe, but our sweet little girl turned 6 months old on January 7th. We are crazy about this baby girl. She is growing so fast and I am finding that everyday I am getting a little more sad to see her grow up. I wish I could freeze her in this stage. She is so much fun to be around. I count my blessings everyday that we get to hang out with each other all day. There are so many things I never want to forget about her at this age. So here is the list of things I don't want to forget!

Evie has a super high pitch screech that she just does all day long. She does it when she happy, wants something, sad, mad and when she knows she is sitting right by your ear!

She loves to put her 2 little hands on both your cheeks when you are talking to her. It's almost like she wants you to know that she is giving you her full attention. It's so cute!

She is sitting up now and that's all she wants to do! She isn't very good yet so I am sitting on the floor right by her for most of my days now! But I love it!

She has been teething a lot but no tooth yet!

She loves anything red. It is always the first color of toy she will go for!

Tonka is one of her best friends. I sure hope I'm above the list from him but there is no way to tell!

Another one of her best friends is her pacifier. It's her favorite toy and it hardly ever just sits in her mouth!

She sucks on her bottom lip. She sucks it in and out and it makes the cutest noise.

Her favorite thing about bed time is snuggling with her blanket. She gets so excited to see it every time I put her down!

She will eat anything you put in her mouth

She sleeps from 7:30 to 7:30 and we LOVE it!!

She is so happy all the time and we love her to death!!

Her 6 month appointment it coming up in a week and I will post all her stats after that. I'm guessing that she weights around 16 pounds but we will see.

Best Buds

2011-01-10T19:07:00.000-08:00

I have been excited to do this post for a while now and just haven't gotten around to it. As you can see here, Evelynn and Tonka are best friends. Wherever Evie goes Tonka is sure to follow shortly after. I try to get a picture of the two of them together as often as I can. Just take a look and see how cute these little guys are together!!

Happy Birthday Preston!!

2011-01-08T05:07:00.000-08:00

Preston's birthday was on January 3 and we had a lot of fun this year. I asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner and he decided that he wanted fondue. I had never made fondue before but I looked up a recipe that looked pretty easy and we decided to try it. It was amazing!! We had some chicken and shrimp to cook in it. I am not a big fan of shrimp but it was better than the chicken in this broth. I guess we will be doing that again very soon! We also invited some friends over the day after his birthday for dinner. We were going to do the fondue that night but we weren't sure it was going to be any good. Plus, Preston gets home pretty late and fondue takes a long time so we just did pasta. We had a really good time with our friends and really should do that more often! Well, Happy Birthday Preston! Evelynn and I love you more than anything else in this world!!

Our fondue dinner. YUMMY!

This is one happy birthday boy!!

These are our wonderful friends that came to celebrate with us! Thanks for coming guys!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-04T18:01:00.000-08:00

This year for Christmas we were able to go to Idaho and visit with Preston's family. Evie was such a good sport the whole way out there. We felt spoiled that she did so well on the airplane. Especially since we didn't get to Utah until 4am our time and she only slept maybe 4 hours that whole time. It did catch up with her the next day. She wanted to sleep the whole day and it took her about 3 days to get back to her normal happy, fun self. It took us 17 hours to get there and about 10 to get home. Needless to say, she is an awesome baby!! We had so much fun in Idaho. It had been 2 years since we made it out there! We did so many things. Santa came to visit us on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning was so much fun just watching our nephews open all their presents. They got some awesome stuff. One of them got a bubble blower and Evie thought that was just amazing!! She also got a lady bug pillow pet and loves it to death! We were all spoiled this year. We also went to see the lights at Rock Creek and went swimming! It was Evelynn's first time swimming and she didn't think much of the cold pool but loved being in the hot tub! It was so cute! It was worth every min of traveling to get there! We wish we lived closer to all our family so we could have fun all the time! We also got some family pictures taken and they turned out so cute. The photographer got some really cute pictures of Evelynn. I will post them when we get them. Anyway.. Christmas was such a blast and we have been lonely ever since we got home. I hope you enjoy the pictures

This was the morning after we got to Utah. Doesn't she look so miserable? haha

our baby loves to give kisses!!! :)

this is one of the bows Aunt Whitney made for Evie. So cute!!

this is the whole kiddie crew. Lowe, Mak, Evelynn, and Emmett

she really liked the bubbles

you're a mean one, Mr. Grinch

2010-11-25T09:27:00.001-08:00

Down at National Harbor this year, they had an ice display of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". It was 2 million pounds of ice hand sculpted into the Dr. Suess story of the Grinch. We decided it would be awesome to go and made our way down there. They kept the whole display at 9 degrees. It was freezing! They gave us parkas to wear but by the end you are a popsicle; except for Evie who was wearing 2 layers of clothes, a blanket on top of her in the bjorn, a beanie, and my parka on top of all that. When we let her free at the end she was our little space heater! It was such a fun Christmas thing to do and we can't wait to see what they do next year! So, there are a lot of pictures, but I wanted to show you the story with our pictures! I hope you enjoy!

Evie is all snuggled up!!

Down in Who-Ville all the Who's are playing with their toys

while the Grinch is thinking how much he hates Christmas, he decides he's gonna play santa and STEAL Christmas Day!

So he gets his reindeer together, who is his puppy Max and they go into Who-Ville.

While the Who's are all sleeping in their little beds

The Grinch steals their roast beast

and all their Christmas trimming!

The next morning, while waiting to hear them cry, the Grinch hears them singing in a circle and his heart grows 3 times it's size!!

He brings back their Christmas and he gets to carve the Roast Beast!

The End!!

They also had the nativity scene made out of ice with the whole story. By this time we couldn't feel our face or hands anymore so took a quick pic and got out of there!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

4 months

2010-11-17T05:15:00.000-08:00

That's right.. Our baby is 4 months old. She weighs 13 lbs 14 oz and is now 23 inches long. About the 50th percentile on everything. She has such a fun little personality and we are loving watching her learn new things. She love to laugh, play with toys, roll from side to side and loves it when Daddy comes home. She sleeps form 8 to 7 on average and loves eating her rice cereal. She has become best friends with Tonka already and laughs whenever he comes around. She is the happiest baby in the world!

Say Cheese

2010-11-10T07:04:00.001-08:00

This is our happy little girl!! When she gets excited her smile gets really big! She is now 4 months old if you can believe it

halloween

2010-10-30T10:30:00.000-07:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
I am starting to like halloween more and more every year! Now that we have a little one it is even more fun. This year we dressed Evie up as a little lady bug. I really wanted to make her something else but I thought about it to late so I couldn't order the costume and it was going to be like 40 dollars!!! I can't believe how expensive costumes have gotten. Were talking maybe 2 yards of fabric to fit a baby Evie's size! CRAZY.. so I decided to just make her a costume. I am happy to say that I made her entire costume for under 10! :) Awesome huh! It was actually pretty fun too!
Anyway.. We went to the ward trunk or treat on thursday and Evelynn won the "sweetest costume" award! It was a pretty fun party! Hopefully on Halloween we can get a picture of her smiling. She was very tired that night!

This is a picture of us holding her prize. What a lucky girl!

what a silly baby

2010-10-28T19:07:00.000-07:00

Evelynn is getting such a fun little personality! I have to say that I am loving the stage she is in right now. Sometimes she will just start laughing really hard at nothing and it is the cutest thing ever! She loves more and more stuff every day and has started putting EVERYTHING in her mouth. Her favorite thing to suck on is her hands though.. the are bright red and dry from all the sucking but no matter how much I pull them out they will go right back in! ANYWAY.. I wanted to post a couple pictures of some of the funny things she does on a daily basis..

This picture is one on my favorites! As you can see, Evie likes to pull her blankets over her face while she sleeps. I did not put that blanket there, she just always seems to find it and pull it right over her eyes. Its a good thing that the blanket has holes in it! :) so cute! This is how she likes to swing. Legs up in the air! She scoots down into the hole and puts them right up. She is nothing but smiles normally when she is swinging like this!!
The other day I was busy doing hair at home so Preston had to feed Evie. After fighting with him for a couple mins it turned out she just wanted to hold her bottle herself. This is a cute way to hold the bottle huh!!
She does lots of other funny, unique things I just have not been able to get them on film yet. But I will someday and then they will be on here!! We are crazy about this little girl!

This is a little late

2010-10-22T18:34:00.000-07:00

Our baby girl is 3 months old! She is still the sweetest thing ever and I can't believe how fast time has gone already.. Here are a couple pictures

A couple fun things about Evie at 3 months..
she is a chunky little thing!
she has started laughing and we can't get enough of it!
still loves bath time
is happiest when she is standing up and looking at everything around her
is really interested in what Tonka is doing. She will stare at him for a long time if he is anywhere near her
loves it when Preston comes home from work
sleeps like a champ! and we are thrilled about it
and never seems to stop talking. She makes so many new noises everyday that all I can do is laugh about it!

We love her so much and are so blessed to have her as a part of our family!

Who would have thought?

2010-10-03T13:42:00.000-07:00

Who would have thought that I would become a HUGE cry baby? I seriously cry every time Evelynn does something new. I don't think I want her to grow up.. lol. The other day Preston and I were running some errands around town so Evelynn had to be in her car seat for a while. Preston found this little toy in the back of my car that you can put across the car seat. She has never liked it much before so I just took it off and figured I would try it later. Well.. Preston put it on her seat and she had very little interest just like before. A couple mins later we were talking in the front seats and I started to hear her playing with her toy in the back. I got pretty excited.. lol.. then she figured out how to make it play music. She was slapping that toy around so much that the music could not keep up. It was so cute! So there I am driving the car and crying about how big my little girl is getting.. hahahaha.. She is so much fun and I love watching her learn every day. I hope I learn to not be such a cry baby but who knows if that will ever happen!

Evelynn's Baby Blessing

2010-09-27T17:10:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday we gave Evelynn her baby blessing in church. We have been looking forward to doing it for a long time because Preston's parents were coming all the way out here for it. We had such a great visit with them and were sad they had to leave so soon! Evelynn looked so cute! We are a little sad that she only gets to wear that dress once cause it is so pretty! Anyway, it is an amazing experience to watch your wonderful husband take your baby girl in his hands and with the power of the priesthood give her a name and a blessing made just for her. I will never forget that day and I am so grateful to have a husband who holds the priesthood. Here are a couple pictures!!

Also.. this week I had to take Evie to get her 2 month well baby check up. She weighs 11 pounds 9 ounces and is now 22 inches long. Almost double what she was when she was born! I can't believe she is so big already! I can get her to smile about anytime I want her to now and there are times where she just wont stop talking to you! She still loves to roll from side to side and our new game is to make her legs run as fast as they can and she just can't get enough of it!! She also LOVES to play on her play mat and thinks mommy is really funny! ANYWAY... she had to get 3 shots while we were at the doctors. She was such a trooper but I have to say that it was way harder on me than I ever could have imagined it would be! I think I cried more than she did! I told Preston that he gets to take her next time cause I don't think I could do that twice! I felt so bad for her but she pulled through and in a couple days she was back to normal happy Evie! Here are her little battle wounds!

This is just a cute picture of baby and Daddy watching some football. That's what I like to do during football too!! Isn't she just so stinkin cute?? We are crazy about this little girl!

2 Months Old and Lake Anna

2010-09-12T11:03:00.001-07:00

Well Evelynn is 2 months old already! Can you believe it? She is still the sweetest little girl ever. We love her so much!

A couple things about Evelynn at 2 months old:

She loves her Mom and Dad
smiles all the time
loves bath time
loves her pacifier and also sucking on her hands
her favorite game to play is when you grab her feet while she is laying down and roll her from side to side. Even when she is crying, this game will put a huge smile on her face
likes to be outside more than anything
she has started sleeping through the night
she won't fall asleep unless her nap time tunes are playing
and has started to take a big interest in Tonka

She is so much more fun every single day and we are loving every minute of being this little girls parents!!

This weekend we went out to Lake Anna. One of Prestons co-workers was having a farewell party at their lake house. This place was huge. Apparently there are a couple of them that own it and they rent it out by the week. Anyway it was a lot of fun. I wish I would have got some more pictures of the place but I didn't. Evelynn had a really good time and everyone there thought she was just the best little baby ever. We kept telling them how much she loves being outside!

2010-09-10T18:44:00.000-07:00

Over Labor Day weekend we decided to finally head downtown and see the sights! I can't believe we have been here since April and haven't done it yet. It was so much fun and we are glad we were able to finally get down there. Here are a bunch of pictures from our weekend!

Washington Memorial

Preston driving the stroller.. It makes him look less girly when he pretends it's a motorcycle :)

The World War 2 Memorial
This was one of our favorites! It made us both kind of sad though.

Lincoln Memorial

Vietnam Memorial

Even though it was REALLY hot and we forgot her pacifier in the car, Evelynn had a good time too. She is such a trooper and loves being outside!

Arlington Cemetery

We were able to watch the changing of the guard ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider. It was an awesome thing to watch. If you are ever in DC and want to see something amazing I suggest visiting the Tomb of the Unknown Solider.

DC is such an awesome place! We had a great time checking out the sights and we are so glad to be here for a couple more years so that we have time to do everything we want to! DC is HUGE!!

Busy Busy couple weeks!

2010-08-27T19:04:00.001-07:00

Well we have had a very busy couple of weeks. First, we took Evelynn to her very first Washington Nationals baseball game. We all had so much fun and the weather was awesome!

The next day she pretty much slept like this all day!! I don't think she moved out of this position ever! She was so pooped!

Evelynn is already a pretty big daddy's girl! She loves Preston so much. This was the night before he left us for 10 days to go on a mountain biking trip in Colorado. We have both missed him a whole lot!

While Preston was away on his trip with his brother and dad, his brothers wife and their 1 year old son came out here to visit with me! We did lots of stuff. We went shopping, to the National Zoo, down town to the Natural History Museum and the Air and Space Museum, to the pool and some other little things. It was a good time!

This is Lowe, our nephew, playing wild with Tonka. Tonka loved it.. and so did Lowe! He would always ask for "Tonk". He would be very concerned if we put him outside and wouldn't let him back in soon enough. They were little buddies!

Lowe kept wanting to ride him and would get upset when Tonka wouldn't stand up. Tonka misses Lowe a lot I think!

Lowe loved his cousin so much! He would come over and say "baby" and wanted to play with her really bad. He had a hard time being careful enough but this is his really happy I love my cousin face I think!

Evelynn wasn't quite sure about him. Even if she was fast asleep and heard him anywhere close by her eyes would pop right open and she would start squirming to get away.. lol.. Becky and I got a big kick out of it a couple of times! This is her "are you really letting him be this close to me??" look. Seconds later she was screaming!!

We had such a good time and can't wait till Christmas when we get to see everyone again! By then Evelynn will probably be big enough to handle all 3 of her boy cousins! :) We cant wait to see you guys!

a couple of pictures

2010-08-25T06:27:00.000-07:00

Evelynn is 5 weeks old in most of these pictures. In the last one she wasn't even 2 weeks. She is getting so big now and is so much fun to be around.

2 WEEKS

2010-07-22T13:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Evie had her 2 week appointment. She weighs 7lbs 4oz and is doing great! She is still such a sweet baby. This week she has been smiling more and more and this morning she was even laughing a little bit. She is so cute! Also, her belly button stump fell off this week so we were finally able to give her a real bath and she has been much happier about it. Preston went back to work on monday and my parents also left on tuesday so it has just been little Evie and I all week! I was a little nervous in the beginning about doing everything all by myself but we have been doing great all week! She is a really easy baby.. hopefully it stays this way.. :) anyway.. we are all doing well. Preston and I are loving being parents and we are just enjoying everyday with our baby girl.

Introducing....

2010-07-12T09:45:00.000-07:00

Evelynn Grace Goodrich

Born July 7, 2010

6 lbs 8oz 18.5 inches long

Evelynn is the sweetest little girl ever! We are crazy about her! She is such a good baby. She nurses great already, sleeps thorough the night for the most part only waking up to eat a couple times and then falls right back asleep. She has the biggest blue eyes ever and makes some of the funniest faces that just make us laugh. We are loving being parents and are thrilled she is finally here! More pictures to come!

The Birth Story.

So people are asking to hear her birth story. It's kind of a boring story so I wasn't going to share it but I guess I still should. Evelynn was due on the 4th of July and the doctor decided that if she hadn't come by that Wednesday they were going to induce me. By that point I didn't care what they had to do, I was ready to have her out. So Wednesday came around and we went into the hospital at 6:30am. At 7:30 they had the Pitocin in. My contractions were going great and not too bad until they broke my water and then instantly I was no longer able to talk. That's when they put in the epidural around 12 o'clock. It really only took on my left side so I was still able to feel most everything on my right side. The nurse came in to check me at 2:30 and I was 5 cm dilated. By this point Preston thought he was in for a long night but just 25 mins later I was feeling a lot of pain on that right side and the nurse checked me again and said that I was ready to have a baby. 5 mins later the doctor came in, I pushed about 6 times and at 3:03pm Evelynn Grace was born. I have to say that the worst part of the whole process was the epidural! I hated getting it and I hated having it in, but I'm sure it would have been worse with out it! I also really hated having a tube coming out of pretty much everywhere. I am not the kind of person who likes being tied down with a bunch of tubes or anything and it was like every time I started to get comfortable they wanted to stick something else in me! Even a min before we left the hospital to come home they stuck a shot in me! I was so sick of the hospital by that point! Anyway.. It went well and Evelynn is doing great and I am starting to feel better! We are so grateful for our little girl and thank our Heavenly Father for her every day.

40 weeks and..........

2010-07-04T19:06:00.000-07:00

Still Pregnant!! Sounds fun huh.. Well here is a picture of me at 40 weeks. Not a great picture but I guess it still shows how huge I am right. It has gotten to the point where even sitting down is uncomfortable now since her head is about as low as it can get.
This little girl has been playing lots of games with us this past week. Last Tuesday I was having some pretty strong contractions that were about 10 mins apart and then all the sudden they just stopped and I went the rest of the week without to many at all. Today I have been having some contractions all day too but they are not that close yet. We are just hoping she will come soon! The good news is that if she doesn't come by Wednesday they are going to induce me. I never thought I would want to do that but right now I don't really care to much. So either way we will have a little baby girl in our arms by the middle of the week which is a little scary but we can't even wait! While I was in Colorado I had a my Dad and my Sister take a couple maternity pictures of me and my sister is still working on them so I will post those when she sends them to me.

So for the 4th of July the Pentagon was letting the people who work there bring their families into the Pentagon to watch the downtown firework show from the roof. We would have loved to go, but we were a little afraid that it would be way to hard to get home fast if we needed to so we decided not to go. Maybe next year I guess. It would have been really fun! Instead we took Tonka to a park a couple miles away and let him play in the creek. He is so funny.. Preston kept throwing rocks in the creek for him and Tonka would go in after them, stick his face all the way in the water and paw around for them. I thought he was going to suck in all the water! It was so funny. Then we came home and played some pretty intense tennis and golf games on the wii. It was just a low key day but we have enjoyed spending time together before the baby comes. Preston has tomorrow off too so hopefully we can find something else fun to do! Happy 4th of July!!

FINALLY!!!!!

2010-06-20T15:22:00.000-07:00

Well Preston is finally home! He has been gone for 10 weeks in Mississippi doing job training and it is now over! He made it home just in time for fathers day. Even though neither one of us are parents yet it was so much fun to celebrate what will hopefully be happening in the next two weeks! We are both very excited to meet our little girl and can't believe it is so close! Anyway.. since Preston is home now I can finally post pictures! YAY.. so this first picture is a picture of our new living room furniture. I had a heck of a time getting it home, but it all worked out in the end and it looks very nice in our living room!Over the past couple weeks I have been sewing a whole lot. I have made a ton of maternity skirts lately. Some for me and a couple for some friends who are pregnant also. On top of that I have sewn flowers to all the pillows in our bedroom and made curtains for our room out of our old ones. I have also made quit a few baby things. This is a picture of one of the nursing covers I made lately for a friends baby shower here. I loved the monkeys on it so much! It turned out really cute!

And here are a couple pictures of the babys room! It is finished and ready for her to come anytime! I think it turned out pretty cute! I was worried that the dark pink on the bottom made the room look smaller than it is but it is still so darn cute!

Now if we can just decide on a name I can get that all finished up and on the walls and there will be nothing else to do in that room till she is here! Which could be anytime now! Crazy.. I have 2 weeks till my due date. I am hoping she comes a little early so that the timing will all work out for my mom and dads visit out here. We will just have to wait and see!

Well nothing else has really been going on. The weather is super hot here. Somedays are worse than others. The humidity feels like you you are walking through a shower sometimes. Those are the days I am so glad to have a pool! My mom will be here in just 2 weeks and my dad in 3. Preston is back at the Pentagon today and was pretty excited to start his real job. Life is finally back to normal and I am so glad to have a husband again!

4 weeks to go

2010-06-06T16:27:00.000-07:00

Well I can't believe it, but my due date is only 4 weeks away now. I am back in Virgina and getting ready for our baby girl to get here. I have spent the last 2 days painting her room, with some help from a friend, and it is just about done. Now I just need to wash her clothes and get everything else I don't have from babies r us and that will be it.. sounds easy right! It's crazy how much stuff you need to have a baby! We are getting so excited to meet her. I am feeling great still. I am sleeping through the night with out any problems, well except to get up and use the bathroom, and I am not really uncomfortable at all. Sometimes she seems heavier than others but I can usually make that stop by laying on my back for a couple mins. So all together I can't believe it's only 4 weeks away. It's gotta get worse than this right?? Hopefully everything goes super smooth! I will post some pictures of her room as soon as preston gets home, which is only 2 weeks away now! YAY!!

colorado

2010-05-24T20:04:00.000-07:00

This past weekend my little sister got married! I can't believe it.. it was a beautiful wedding and she was so happy! Last Sunday my Dad and I took her out to take a couple bridal pictures of her. She was such a beautiful bride!About a week later Chris and Michelle got married. We were very busy all week long getting everything together for her wedding. It turned out so pretty and everyone had a really good time.

The bride and groom

her reception hall

Megan, Michelle, Me and Nina

We really had a lot of fun and it was good to see a bunch of people I haven't seen in a really long time!
So I am now 34 weeks pregnant and feeling it. :) Here is a picture of me nice and pregnant for everyone who has been asking to see it!

other than working on my sisters wedding and hanging out with family while they were in town it has been a very low key trip. My friend Megan was so nice and threw me a baby shower. I got so many very cute things and my Grandma and Aunt Sue were able to come as well which was really nice of them. It was so much fun. We played some games and ate some good food then opened presents. Our little girl is set for at least a year. Thank you to everyone who was able to make it! I have one more week here in town and my good friend Shae is getting married on Saturday. So one more busy week of helping out with weddings and then I can relax and prepare to have this baby! Hopefully I will be able to post some more pictures before I head home!

florida!!

2010-05-04T08:24:00.000-07:00

Well Preston is stuck doing job training in Mississippi right now so I flew out here this weekend to visit him for a couple of days! It has been so much fun and we have had such a good time together! We are both really sad that after today we wont see each other for 6 more weeks but we hopefully it will go fast. So we decided while I was out here we would drive down to Florida for the weekend. It rained most of the time we were there and the waves at the beach were huge so we shopped, saw a movie, and shopped some more! They had a really good outlet mall there and we got Preston some really good new running shoes for cheap which he really needed. We also went shopping for our little girl which was so much fun! Preston was able to pick out some things he thought were cute which is good since it seems every time I buy her something it is a pink dress. They are all just to cute not to get! Anyway.. we had a lot of fun! On Sunday when we were headed back the weather seemed really nice so we decided to try the beach again. It was nice! It was overcast still so for some reason we didn't even think about putting sunblock on. We were also only planning on being there for 30mins and ended up staying for 2 hours. Needless to say we have probably the worst sunburn of our lives. WOOPS!! so the last 2 days have been healing days for us. All together we have had a really good weekend and are sad to see it end!

Over the past couple weeks while Preston has been away I have been keeping busy making maternity skirts. They are so simple and when the fabric is 50 percent off they are dirt cheap! I think I have finally figured out how to use my sewing machine too! It has been a fun little project. I will have to post some pictures as soon as I can! Next week I am going home to Colorado for my little sisters wedding and my good friend Shae's wedding and when i get home from that I will just be preparing to have a baby in a couple weeks! Busy times are coming up!

here we are

2010-04-12T17:48:00.000-07:00

Well we made it here to VA with no problems at all! We have been here for about 2 weeks now and have gotten a lot of things done. I wish I could post some pictures but Preston took the good computer to Mississippi this week so I have no way of putting pictures up right now. But I promise to put some up as soon as I can! We had lots of fun while Prestons parents were out. We all went down to DC one day and saw the white house, the capital building, the Washington monument and Prestons parents even got to see the Lincoln Memorial which they say was really awesome! (we couldn't find a place to park so we will see it another time I guess). We also make a quick detour to see the DC Temple on our way to the Airport. It is so beautiful and this last weekend Preston and I had a chance to go in and do a session. It is an amazing place to be! I took some pretty pictures, but it will have to wait I guess. Our little girl is growing strong and getting really big. I am still trying to get into a doctor out here but it doesn't sound like it is going to be to hard. I'm kinda hoping they make me get another ultrasound so I can see how big she is now but we will see. :) Other news.. well my baby sister is getting married! I am so glad I am able to be there for it! We shaved Tonka again.. haha.. he looks way better this time then last time, I promise and I am just finding ways to pass the time now. When you aren't working it's really easy to get a project done super fast so I am having a hard time staying busy but there is lots of stuff that needs to be done still so I am happy to do them for now. That's all that's going on over here though. Hopefully soon we will have some good pictures for you to take a look at!

On Our Way!!

2010-03-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

Well by tomorrow evening we will be all packed up and on our way to our new home in Woodbridge Virginia. Prestons parents got in town last night to help us move out there and it has been so fun having them here already. Tonight is Prestons graduation ceremony which we are all very excited to attend and then it will be good bye Dayton. We have made lots of wonderful friends here and we are going to miss all of you so much! Hope to see you guys again soon!!

Baby Shower

2010-03-07T17:29:00.000-08:00

These are the three girls who worked very hard to put together the most beautiful shower I have ever seen! You girls are so nice! It was so much fun and I can't thank you enough for all your hard work. Here are some pictures..
My wonderful friend Emily who drove 2 hours to be there! Thanks for coming Emily. It was so fun to have you there!

It was so fun and thanks again to everyone who was able to come!

busy busy

2010-02-26T18:10:00.000-08:00

well as you can guess from the title of this post, things have been very busy here! Preston has the first draft of his thesis in and is now working on the couple things they wanted changed then he will be all done!! He is so excited to be finished with school! He works so hard and I am so proud of him! On top of working hard on his thesis, Preston has been busy working on getting everything in order for us to buy a house. A couple weekends ago he drove all the way there by himself to close on the house we ending up getting. SO.... It is officially ours. We have the keys and everything! It is a beautiful place and we cant wait to get there!! Here are just a couple pictures for now. I will post more once we are moved in and have more stuff to take pictures of!

the Kitchen

the Dinning Room

Dinning room looking toward the front door

Front door looking toward the Dinning Room

The Basment Family Room

I am still busy just being pregnant and working. My last day at work is the 13th which is only 2 weeks away and I am excited to get this show on the road! Waiting is the hardest part about moving I have decided. There is still so much to do though so I guess it's good to have a little more time before it's time to leave right?!

Our little girl is doing good. She moves a lot now and Preston has felt her for sure a couple of times now. We got our crib and glider just the other day which has been really fun, and a couple of friends are throwing me a baby shower here in the next couple weeks. It's sinking in now.. we are having this little baby! Still no names yet.. sorry!

So the other day, I was throwing a little (very little) fit about how I am just not sure I can have both a baby and a dog that sheds like you wouldn't belive in the same house. I don't know how people do it but I know tons of people do. So Preston decided to shave him.. haha.. Tonka went from this........

to this....

hahaha... pretty funny huh. He looks pretty bald, but he really likes it and there is practically no dog hair all over the house which I really like! This might be his new permanent look!! Anyway, that's it for news on our end. In a couple weeks we will be in our new home and we will post more pics then!

It's a GIRL!!

2010-02-11T10:58:00.000-08:00

Well there she is! The doctor spent a lot of time looking at her little area to make sure that she is actually a girl and says that he has no doubt about it! We are very excited and can't wait to meet her!

update

2010-01-31T11:55:00.000-08:00

Well we get to find out what kind of baby we are having in about a week and a half! YAY.. I always thought that when I got pregnant I would go crazy waiting til 20 weeks to find out what it is but I have been very patient and it hasn't been too hard! We are very excited that it is almost time though! We still have not even come close to picking a name yet.. lol.. It is one of the hardest things to do we have decided. We just don't really agree on any of them. Hopefully it will be easier once we know what it is! Lets hope :)
About 2 weeks ago I thought I felt our little guy moving around but I wasn't sure, now I can feel it a couple times a day! At least I hope thats what it is! I was sure it would make me feel sick feeling it move around inside of me since just about everything else makes me sick but it hasn't at all. It's kind of cool actually.. in a weird way. It makes me more excited to finally meet it! It will also be nice when I don't have to call it "IT" anymore.. haha.. that's weird! anyway.. we are doing good. Preston is busy busy finishing his thesis and we are waiting patiently to move into our new home in Woodbridge Virgina. OH YEAH.. I forgot to post this a while ago but we bought a house! It is beautiful and we can't even wait to move into it! So if you are ever in the need for a fun, cheap vacation you can make your way on over to Washington D C where all the museums are free and stay at our new home for free as well! That's all the new with us for now for at least a week and a half. I will post shortly after we find out what we are having! YAY!

Ultrasounds

2010-01-09T17:36:00.000-08:00

Well here are a couple of our first ultrasound pictures!! I am just past 14 weeks in them. We were at our appointment for almost 2 hours cause our little guy would not stop moving around long enough to get the measurements they needed. It was really cute, but a little inconvenient since I ended up being an hour and a half late for work. Woops.. :) I am still getting sick but it's not as bad as it used to be. I have lost 13 pounds total and on days where nothing wants to stay down it's even more. I am also starting to get a little belly which even my co-workers have noticed the past couple days. Preston has been so supportive and wonderful these past couple weeks. He is so excited to become a daddy too.. I have taken the ultrasound picture to work the past couple days and every time I talk to him he asks me if I still have those pictures of his baby. He is going to be a great Dad and we are so excited to be having this little baby. We find out in just a couple weeks what the sex of the baby is so be expecting that update shortly!

The News Is Out!!

2009-12-23T08:19:00.000-08:00

We are going to be parents! Can you believe it! Our little one is due July 5th which will be perfect timing for us since we are moving to a new place at the end of March. I am 12 weeks right now and sick as can be still so I am just looking forward to the time I start feeling better! I have a couple ultrasound pictures but we are in Colorado Springs right now and have to wait to get home to post them. Anyway.. this is our big news and we can't wait to meet our little one in a couple months! Merry Christmas!!

Thanksgiving!!

2009-11-29T17:12:00.001-08:00

We had another great Thanksgiving this year! We are so blessed to have made such wonderful friends here in Dayton who invited us over for dinner this year as well as last year! It was a lot of fun to get together with other families who stuck around here for the holidays. We ate tons of food then the boys watched football and the girls got in lots of much needed girl talk! Even though we wish we could have seen our family in Idaho and met our 2 new nephews this year, we are very grateful for all our friends! SO.. a huge Thank You to the Barkers for hosting again!! Next Thanksgiving will seem so weird with out you guys!!

Extreme Home Makeover

2009-11-07T14:40:00.000-08:00

This Sunday, November 8th, Extreme Home Makeover is airing the Dayton Ohio episode. It is at 8 o'clock eastern time! I am very excited to see it!

Halloween and Fresh Pumpkin Filling

2009-11-06T09:12:00.000-08:00

Well halloween was super fun! For the church halloween party Preston and I dressed up as an aweful hairdresser and a very unlucky client. Then for work I dressed up as Harry Potter. It was really funny and people got a big kick out of it!!

Also, Every year after halloween we cut up our pumpkins, boil them and blend them to make fresh pumpkin filling for anything we want to put pumpkin in! We usually just end up eating a whole ton of Pumpkin Pie. Anyway, it was a really fun family home evening activiy and now we have enough pumpkin to make 24 pumpkin pies!! So if you need pumpkin for anything just let me know!!

The Big News!!!!

2009-10-21T19:14:00.000-07:00

Well.. we finally found out where we are going next. We will be in Washington D.C. where Preston will be working at the Pentagon. He will be working for the Rated Force Policy Development which he will be able to use his Operations Research degree for. He is very happy because that was what he was hoping for. He said to me yesterday when we found out "man, this is going to stink.. I'm going to have a real job now!" haha.. but I think he is really going to enjoy it. I was kinda hoping to go somewhere closer to home and warmer but there is so much to do in a place like D.C and I'm sure we are going to love being there! Now we just have to find a place to live!!!!

Pink for a good Cause

2009-10-19T18:51:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, for 5 dollars which was donated to breast cancer research, we were able to wear pink to work. We are usually only allowed to wear black, white and gray so it was really fun to add a little color.. anyway here is a picture of some of us supporting "save the TaTa's"

Also, we all wore pink hair pieces that day and when I got home Tonka decided he really liked to play with it! So here is a funny video of him trying to get it out of his hair!

Halloween Crafts

2009-10-14T13:40:00.000-07:00

I can't belive it's October already! I went to pull out my Halloween decorations and realized I don't really have any. Well we did have a couple dish towels and a door mat but that was it so I started making some halloween crafts. I also found out how crafty Preston can be! With a jig saw and some careful drilling he made me some spooky trees and I painted them! They turned out really cute! Anyway it was really fun making crafts and now I can't wait til christmas time so I can make lots more!!

This is the outside of our house!! Just kidding.. This is our neighbors!

They really like Halloween!!

This is our front door. I cut the bats out with my friend Nicole!

Here are the trees we made not lit up

Here they are lit up! Cute huh!!

Here are some ghosts Nicole and I made together one afternoon.. and tonka pretending he's a ghost too.

And this is our centerpiece. It's kind of a dark picture but this was the best looking one!

Tonka!! He is so big now!

Funny Story

2009-09-29T20:53:00.001-07:00

So the other day at work, one of my regular clients came in for his haircut. I have cut this guys hair every other week for a year now so I know his hair pretty well! As I was shampooing him, something just seemed different. I couldn't put my finger on what it was so I just let it go. As we went back to my chair and I started cutting his hair he gets really excited and tells me that he and his wife went up to his parents house for the weekend and as he was taking a shower there he noticed that his mom had this stuff in her shower he had never used before. So he decided to use it and he loved it. THEN.. he looks me square in the face and says.. "have you ever heard of conditioner before??" hahahaha.. why yes i have! Turns out he has never once heard of or used conditioner before in his life and just started using it. He tells his wife about this and asks if they can get some at home and she informs him that she has always had some in the shower! (I do her hair as well and we got a real good laugh out of this a couple days later when she came in!!) Then I realized that was what i noticed at the shampoo bowl!! His hair was quite a bit softer and his cowlick in the front of his hair line was laying better than I have ever been able to make it lay in a whole year. I educated him some more on what conditioner does for the hair and now I think he is hooked for life! It really was a whole lot funnier in the moment, but it was the highlight of my week!

MEXICO!!

2009-09-23T18:42:00.001-07:00

2 weeks ago we went on our summer vacation to Cancun Mexico! It was such a blast. We just layed on the beach most of the time, played in the crystal clear water, went snorkeling a couple times, on a couple boat rides, went to a couple flee markets and ate lots of food! We cant wait to go back sometime!

The view from our balcony

US.. first day there

He loves the water!

After our Jungle tour ride!

Relaxing and reading a book!

The water was so clear that Preston could get pictures of his little friends

This is one cool dude!

swimming

getting ready to Snorkel

swinging on Isla Mujeres

on our last day there.. we were sad to leave!

2009-09-07T07:01:00.000-07:00

So Preston and I were watching TV yesterday and saw this commercial! I have to admit I thought it was pretty sweet and bought it! So if anyone needs to make some easy brownies, Im your girl! :)

p.s. Check out my new baby!!

2009-08-16T18:02:00.001-07:00

That's right.. I got a brand new bike!! On friday we went to a bike store in the mall I work at and got an amazing deal on this sweet thing! We went for our first ride today. She's pretty huh!

Oh and the other day we made meatball sandwhiches and Preston insisted that I put this picture up. He loves meatball sandwhiches!!

update

2009-08-16T16:45:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how long it has been since our last post! Here is an update on our summer! On top of Preston still going to school and me working, we manage to squeeze in fun things here and there. Preston has learned how to wakeboard this summer and really loves doing it! He has also been training for the Air Force Marathon which is in September and that has kept him pretty busy as well. A couple weeks ago my parents came out for a quick visit. They were only here for 2 days but it was so much fun to see them and to show them all the cool things here in Ohio! We went to the Air Force Museum, I got to show them where I work, and we went to the New Port Aquarium in Cincinnati. It was a lot of fun! We miss them. Right after they left, Extreme Home Makeover was in town working on a house just down the street from where we go to church. The salon and spa I work at was asked to go down and help out with the house and to give complimentary massages to the workers. It was an incredible experience! The episode will be airing in October sometime. I will let you know when it will be for sure if you want to watch it! The next weekend we went all the way to Seattle for my brothers wedding. It was so awesome being there and we were so thankful we were able to go. The plain rides were aweful but it was worth it in the end! We are so happy for Kelly and Sarah! In 3 weeks we will be heading to Mexico for some fun in the sun! It has been a really fun summer! I will try to update our blog before 3 months go by again! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

1 Year Down!! Can You Belive It?

2009-06-04T09:19:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday was our 1 Year Anniversary! Yahoo! We can't belive how fast it has gone! Preston has been the best Husband and friend any girl could ask for! It has been the best year of our lives and we are looking forward to the rest of eternity together! I love you Preston!

For those who don't know, Tonkas birthday is also on May 31st! He is now 1 Year old! We love him so much and are happy to have such a good little puppy! Happy Birthday little Tonka!

Memorial Day Weekend!

2009-05-26T17:13:00.000-07:00

Well for this Memorial Day Weekend we decided to take a little trip to Cleveland! Its not often that we have 2 whole days off together so it was a blast to go away and spend every minute with each other! It all started on Sunday morning. We dropped Tonka off at a friend's house who was nice enough to watch him for the night, then we headed up to Kirtland, OH to check out the temple! It was really cool. Its a weird feeling to stand in the very same room that Joseph Smith once stood and received visits from angels! It was an awesome experience. The temple grounds were so beautiful too!! There wasn't a whole lot else to do there so after about an hour and a half we decided to head toward Cleveland. After checking into our hotel and getting all settled in, we went to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. We were so hungry and it was sooo good! Then we went back to the hotel and watched the Cleveland Cavaliers game. By the time the game was over it was really late but the hotel pool was 24 hours so we decided to go swimming. It didn't last long cause we were so tired! The next day we woke up, checked out and went to a BBQ Ribs Cook Off! It was so good! We ate so much meat it was kinda gross! After we started to feel sick we left and made our way over to the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame. Did you know that Rock n' Roll was born in Cleveland? yep, by a radio announcer whos only way to describe the music was "Rock n' Roll". Years later the Hall of Fame opened! It was really cool to see all the famous rock stars stuff there. Clothes, shoes, drums, guitars, pianos, cars, letters from one to another, we even saw what Elvis' Father wrote down and said at his funeral! It was pretty cool! After that we got in the car and headed home! We had a great weekend and can't wait to go on vacation again soon!

Way To Go!!

2009-05-15T18:56:00.000-07:00

Preston had a bike race today down at John Bryan State Park and he won 1st place!! He had a lot of fun and is way excited to be back on the bike winning some races! He has another one tomorrow morning so we will let you know how it turns out. Way to go Preston!!

Happy Happy Birthday!!

2009-05-14T07:32:00.000-07:00

Well 2 days ago I turned 22!! Can you belive it! This birthday felt weird to me mostly because last birthday I was getting married 2 weeks later so it was just a crazy time, but it was a great birthday! First, Preston bought me a beautiful bouquet of yellow tulips. Tulips have become my new favorite flower since we have been here in Ohio! They are everywhere and I just love them! Unfortunatley I had to work that day too, but I was busy all day so it was better than just sitting around wasting time. My friend at work woke up early that morning and made me this delicious cinnamon monkey bread stuff for breakfast! It was so nice of her! Then my other friend at work brought me an Ice Cream cake from cold stone!! I am so grateful to have friends like them!! They were really sweet! When I got home Preston and I went to dinner at Red Robin cause we were craving some french fries and a milk shake a whole lot! It was delicious! Then we went over to another friends house and watched their kids so they could go to an appointment! She made us a really delicious cake with mint chocolate chips on top! It was a really wonderful day!! And I got lots of fun presents!! Preston got me a wii and a plane ticket home in June, my parents bought us DDR for our wii, Nina sent me a gift card to my favorite clothes store ever (thanks nina!) and a couple other small things earlier in the month that we justified were ok cause they could be birthday presents!! :) lol.. It really was the best birthday ever!! Next up... One Year Anniversary!! YAHOO!!

GOOD NEWS!!

2009-05-08T17:44:00.001-07:00

Last night we recived a call from my brother Kelly and he is getting married!! We were really shocked and extremely happy for him! The big day is going to be August 8th in the Seattle Temple. That is exactly 3 months from today so they are very busy getting everything together! We are so excited for them and can't wait to see them get married in the Temple for Time and all Eternity!! Congratulations Kelly and Sarah, marriage is the best thing in the world!! Can't wait to be there!

Nothing new really

2009-04-25T18:31:00.000-07:00

Well there is nothing really new to talk about.. I just have so much energy right now that I decided to put it to good use on our blog! :) We are doing really well. Work is picking up for me and I have been crazy busy. This week on my day off I got to hang out with my friend Nicole and we made "hooter hiders". haha.. I still think that is the funniest name ever Nicole.. :) If you don't know what that is, it is a nursing bib thing to cover the baby and yourself while you are nursing. No, I am not pregnant but we wanted to make one really bad and they turned out super cute!! Take a look!! Next we think we want to make skirts!!
Preston has had a really busy week at school.. I feel like I have hardley seen him this week. Our other good news is that we finally got a wii!! It has been so much fun! Preston still kicks my butt all the time but I am happy to say that I am getting better! Our favorite games are golfing, tennis, fishing, shooting, tanks, air hockey, and the find me game. My birthday is in 2 weeks and I am really hoping for some new sweet wii games.. I will let you know how that turns out! Last night we made salmon for dinner and it was the best salmon I have ever had. I don't even like salmon and I really could have eaten the whole thing! Preston was very impressed with my cooking skills needless to say!! It's always nice when your husband likes what you made for dinner :) Some other stuff.. well Tonka is getting really big. He has this funny habit of carrying his bed all over the house with him. Its like a security blanket for him or something, but just recently he chewed a big hole through it so now he carries it around his neck.. it's funny. Heres a picture ..The second picture is of him wraped up in his bed like a blanket. He loves that bed so much! He also has a big love for tennis balls and sticks that grows on a daily basis! Some other little things about Tonka are the he hates the sun. He will walk in your shadow if you walk him when the sun is out.. haha.. so cute! And he is a little bit of a scaredy cat when other dogs are around unless they are nice to him first. He loves children more than tennis balls and sticks im pretty sure and he knows about 6 really super cute tricks! Until we have kids one day he is our little man and we are just loving having him around!! :) Well I have run out of things to talk about so I hope you enjoyed my rambling and I will post again soon!!

Here is an Update!!

2009-04-14T18:13:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!! So it's been a while and lots of things have happened! About 2 weeks ago my best friend Nina came out to visit and we had a blast hanging out with her. It was nice to have a little peice of home here in Ohio. We got pedicures,went to Air Force Museum, shopped till we dropped, saw a movie, went to an indoor water park which was a total blast, and played with Tonka. Tonka just loved her.. we couldn't get him to leave her alone!! We miss her a ton! Then it was easter weekend. To be honest, it snuck up on both of us. I didn't realize it was sunday till the friday before so needless to say we did pretty much nothing! We had steaks for dinner though which were really good!
A couple weeks ago I had to teach Preston how to play Texas Hold Em' so that he could go to a party for one of the big guys in his department at work. So latley we have been playing against each other with jelly beans.. I don't know how he beats me every time cause this used to be my game, but he does!! I haven't won one game against him yet.. so I have made a choice to not teach him anymore games that he is able to beat me at. At least I still kill him at California Speed!! :) He can't touch my skills on that game.. haha
Another peice of great news is that Preston and I are an Aunt and Uncle again! Prestons brother and sister-in-law finally had their baby this morning and we are so happy for them! Congrats Becky and Tyler! We can't wait to meet little Lowe!
Prestons big news is he FINALLY got himself a new bike! So he has been riding it a lot and has entered into a couple races already!! He is so excited to be back on the bike! I am still just working and enjoying my one extra day off a week!! Work is getting busy and time is just flying so we are doing good and getting excited for our next adventure! We will let you know where that will be hopefully in the next couple months!!

2009-03-16T16:42:00.000-07:00

Tagged By Emily!

5 Things I was doing 5 years ago:

1. Going to high school
2. Just started driving
3. Working at a day care
4. Dating really stupid boys, or one in paticular if you know what i mean.. :)
5. hanging out with friends

5 Things on my to do list for today:

1. sleep in cause it's my day off
2. clean the house
3. give Tonka a bath
4. find curtains for our bed room
5. make dinner

5 Things I would do with a million dollars:

1. Pay off all my families debt so we could see each other all the time!
2. have lots of kids and pay for ALL of their college!
3. buy an airplane so we can visit family all the time
4. probably spend a chunk of it on clothes :)
5. Go on vacation all the time

5 Places I have lived:

1. Phoenix, AZ
2. Albuquerque, NM
3. Colorado Springs, CO
4. Dayton, OH
5. Soon to be... who knows where??

5 Jobs I have held:

1. Day Care
2. Bed Bath and Beyond
3. Panera Bread
4. Beauty Brand Salon and Spa
5. Hausfelds Salon and Spa

5 Things I want to be doing in 5 Years:

1. Be a stay at home mom
2. Own a house
3. have my student loans paid off
4. see all my siblings married and happy
5. Im sure there is more but i cant think of anything else

5 People I tag:
Whitney, Becky, Nicole, Katie R, Karen W

Party like it's 1989

2009-03-15T19:06:00.000-07:00

This weekend my work threw an appreciation dinner for all us employees. They do one every year and this year we got to go!! The theme was 80's prom, well it was supposed to be 80's prom but all the people at our salon decided we wanted to just dress up in crazy 80's stuff instead of prom and it was pretty funny!! We looked way cooler I will say! Anyway we had a whole lot of fun.. At these parties they do an awards ceremony and contests and everyone drinks a lot.. well everyone except for us :) and then there is dancing which gets pretty wild by the end of the night! I even won an award this time!! All the awards are just big jokes and I got the award for the biggest partier which is funny because everyone knows we don't drink and so it's just a huge joke now. It was pretty funny! but all together we had a really good time! We hope we get to do it again while we are here! Just to give everyone a quick update on what we are doing.. Preston just finished his 2 quarter of school and is finishing his finals this week. He is glad for a break from school and I have just droped my monday shifts at work so I am only working 4 days a week now instead of 5. It will be really nice I just hope I dont get to bored! Tonka recently got nudered and is doing really well!! He is still growing a ton but we are happy he is a good dog! We still have no idea where we will be going when Preston graduates so that news will come at another time. Other than that life is pretty normal! My best friends coming out here for a visit in 2 weeks and it can't come fast enough! We are a really blessed family and I am grateful everyday for everything our savior has given us!

Valentines Day

2009-02-15T16:43:00.001-08:00

Well it has been a crazy week over here. Every Valentines Day in my line of work is a busy day. We get lots of guys that make appointments for their wives or girlfriends to get manis, pedis and to get their hair done for their evening out so we are usually busy, but when Valentines day falls on a Saturday we dont even get time to sit down!! Yesterday we had to order pizza into work so that everyone would have time to eat something quick and even then some of us didn't get to eat at all.. lol.. It was out of control! But once the long day was over Preston and I were able to go to the UD basketball game. It was kind of a boring game but at least we won! Afterwards Preston surprised me with a pearl necklace and earings. They are beautiful! Thats about it for our Valentines day.. Somewhere in the middle of this crazy week I caught a cold so I stayed home from church today sleeping it off. Preston is doing good.. and we are just counting down the days till summer! We are hoping to like Ohio better during the summer! :)

February Already!

2009-02-04T10:11:00.001-08:00

Well it's February now and I can't belive that I haven't updated this!! Not a whole lot has happened and that's probably why it's taken so long to get on here. So.. Here is a list of things we have been doing since the new year. Preston took me skiing! It was my first time ever and I had a lot of fun!! I fell on my butt way more than I wanted to but I guess with practice that will not happen as often.. :) For Prestons birthday he wanted season tickets to the University of Dayton basketball games so we have had fun going to those latley. I have only been able to make it to one so far but he went with a friend last week while I was working and still had a great time! We are so glad that The Office season 5 is on again! We enjoy watching those every Thursday night. We finally got a new kitchen table!! It was on clearance for dirt cheap but had no seats.. so we got it and then realized that the seats were not going to be as good of a deal as the table was. Oh well though.. we love it!! I will post some pictures in the next couple days! Other than that we have just been working and hanging out. Nothing to exciting! Prestons school is going good and I am surviving work! Tonka is getting huge.. He is 75 pounds now and he's only 8 months.. lol.. He is going to be a big boy! He has learned a couple new tricks and they are super cute! I have a video of one. I will put it up with the one of the table in a couple days!! All together it's been a pretty good year so far!

A great finish to a Wonderful year

2009-01-02T18:42:00.000-08:00

OH MY GOODNESS.. It's 2009 already.. This year has gone so fast! So many things have happened this year.. Engagements, marriage, moving, new jobs, puppy dogs, and new friends as well as keeping in touch with old ones.. That will fill a year for sure!! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful life! But before I go any further I should probably mention how our Christmas was. We had a great Christmas hanging out with Preston's family in Idaho. We were so lucky to have all of our family there. Preston's brother and sister-in-law were also able to come up to Idaho from Arizona to visit. They also brought their little baby boy who has not been born yet but it was so fun to hear the plans for their little Lowe! His sister and brother-in-law were also able to come down for a couple days! We did so much stuff.. here is some insite into our christmas..

belive it or not, we traveled 15 hours to get to Burley! (well worth it in the end)

I got to talk about girl stuff with my sister-in-laws and my mother-in-law which sounds normal, but it was so much fun! One of my favorite parts about the trip!

Opened lots for presents!

played with our super cute nephew.. we can't wait to see him again
Played lots of DDR and Guitar Hero! (we were so glad you brought that down Whitney!!)

Ate lots and lots of good food.. we went to this pizza place where they just walk around with all sorts of pizza and you take what you want until you are full.. they have some interesting choices!!
saw a couple movies. Yes Man and Valkyrie.. they were both pretty good.. Yes Man was hillarious though..

went shooting guns with preston's dad once.. Preston said that i have to put in here that he hit the top of a shaving cream bottle off with a 357 revolver only using one hand, and the first time from over a 100 feet away.. :) we were so proud of him!!

We got to pick out some potatoes from a friends potato cellar.. if you have never been inside a potato cellar it's something you must see before you die.. lol.. it's incredible!!

for the first time ever we were able to go to my Grandma's Birthday party in Twin Falls. Her birthday is on New Year's Eve and everyone gets together for dinner. It was lots of fun to see my family too while we were out there!
We also went shopping that day and I got lots of new cute clothes cause everything was 50% off!! It was so much fun shopping together! Usually we have a hard time doing that but we really had a great day..

For New Year's Eve we hung out in Preston's parent's basement watching the ball drop and drinking some Martinelli's. It was a quiet new year but we enjoyed every minute of it..

We did lots of other things that are too little to mention.. but all together we had a great time! We can't wait to see everyone again!! Things that have happened in the couple hours we have been home, well we picked Tonka up and he is probably double the size he was when we left him. It's so sad.. :( but we are so glad to see him. He also has a really bad infection in his ear that we can tell is bothering him really bad so hopefully tomorrow we can get him into the vet and get it fixed up. I am back at work and.. oh yeah.. as you can see, I am a red head now.. lol :) But life is back to normal and we are so thankful for our many blessings!! Hope your holidays were wonderful! Happy New Year!!

SNOW SNOW SNOW

2008-12-07T18:30:00.000-08:00

Well as you guessed.. it snowed here last night!! If you grew up in Colorado like I did im sure you will see this picture and think that it is nothing to write about, but it is exciting to get some snow for the first time out here in Ohio! I guess that the good amounts of snow don't normally come until after the 1st of the new year. So we are waiting around for that. Neither one of us mind the snow to bad, it's the cold weather that we hate. It has been so cold here! The humidity makes it misrable to live in! Plus, since it's so cold, the snow just freezes to the roads and it's nothing but black ice.. sounds dangerous!! Time for new tires I guess! Anyways.. we would love to be living in Arizona right about now but the good news is that Tonka is having a blast playing in the snow. He likes to lay outside and eat it and anything he can find frozen underneath it.. and I mean anything!! He likes being outside more now than he ever did when the weather was nice. So basically it has been a day full of hot cocoa and movies! But 17 days and we get to go on vacation! We can't even wait!

Our Thanksgiving!

2008-12-05T17:21:00.001-08:00

Well it's December now and I haven't had time to tell everyone about our Thanksgiving! We had a very nice Thanksgiving! We weren't able to go home since Preston only had a couple days off from school and since i have a job now. But it worked out just fine. We ended up going over to a friends house for dinner with 3 other couples and their kids! It was really fun and all we had to make was the pumpkin pie which is a whole lot easier than making a WHOLE Thanksgiving dinner for just 2 people. SO, the only thing we had to say about Thanksgiving was that it was a wonderful way to spend our first Thanksgiving as a married couple! It is weird though.. You really learn a lot about yourself and your spouse living so far away from home and not being able to go see your family for every holiday. We learned this holiday to be sesitive about each others feelings and that making new family traditions for our little family is important to do. Anyways, even though we did just fine with out our families for Thanksgiving we are really really looking forward to going to Idaho in just 2 weeks and spending Christmas with Prestons family! Other than that, we are just staying busy here at home. I have a calling now as the Secretary in the Young Womens presidency and Preston is a primary teacher for the 8 and 9 year olds. I am starting to get more busy at work and I am still doing hair on the side at home. Preston is busy with school getting good grades and studying all the time. So in-between our callings and our jobs we like to relax and hang out with each other! We are really looking forward to a vacation!

Oh Christmas Tree

2008-11-21T19:02:00.000-08:00

Well, tonight was the lighting of the 50 ft christmas tree in the courtyard of the mall I work at. We were so exctied to be there and see it and then.... we were late and missed it! But the tree was lit and it is so beautiful!! It was freezing cold outside. Preston and I realized what babies we are in the cold when we were both wearing two jackets and were still shaking uncontrolably! We sure wish now more than ever we would have been able to go to Tucson. But hopefully after this assignment we will get sent to texas where the weather will be nice and HOT!! ANYWAYS, back on topic.. It was a really fun night! There was a parade going through the whole square. There was Santa Clause, a High School Marching band playing christmas music, Carolers all over, elfs and all sorts of christmas loving people!! It's so much fun working in this beautiful environment too! Santa has a little cabin where kids can come sit on his lap all day long, Mrs Clause reads stories everynight to groups of children, carolers come every weekend and sing songs for the shoppers and a horse drawn carriage gives rides all season long! It is so much fun to drive through every single day! Especially for people like us to love christmas as much as we love being alive!! LoL.. After we took some picutres and took a look around at all the beautiful decorations we went to this "authentic" turkish resturaunt for dinner just across the street. It was an interesting experience but the food was pretty alright! Well we hope everyone is loving the start of this Christmas season as much as we are and we can't wait to be with our families! OH YEAH.. and Happy Thanksgiving!!

WE HAVE A BLOG!!

2008-11-12T17:15:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!!
Well we finally got a blog! YAY.. After we found out all our friends had them and we were the only ones that nobody knew anything about we decided to make one! So I bet your wondering what we have been doing out here in good old Dayton Ohio. Well Preston has been staying busy with school. I have FINALLY gotten a job! It took forever to transfer my license over to an Ohio State license but it worked out and I have been working for about 2 weeks now at Hausfelds Salon and Spa. It's a pretty nice, high end salon. Pauly Shore was in just the other day for a couples massage with his fiance. I guess he wasn't very nice though.. but i will be able to live with this job for the next year and a half with any luck. In our free time together we like to watch football, basketball, the office and ER. We also like to hang out with our cute little puppy, Tonka. He is a ton of fun and keeps us very busy. We love our house and we can't wait to decorate it for christmas cause it is going to be the cutest house ever!! For the holidays we are going to Idaho to spend Christmas with Prestons family and we are so excited to see everyone. Well thats about the basics of our lives right now. We are excited to have a blog and share our lives with everyone we love! I will let you know when something worth talking about comes up! Have a wonderful week!