Surprise!

I'm sure by now you have all heard, but if not, don't worry, we didn't tell anyone until Christmas- you're not that far out of the loop. Jade and I are going to have a baby! Yes, it's true, I'm knocked up. And we couldn't be any happier. My unofficial due date is June 26, but we will get a closer estimate at our next appointment (on the 5th). Also, in case you haven't heard, it's a girl! I'm SO excited! Little boys are wonderful, but girl clothes are so much cuter!! I'm still not really showing, but I can definitely feel my body changing. So far I've gained almost 5 pounds. Jade thinks I'm going to pop any minute (as in I'm going to start showing). When we had the ultrasound, everything was normal, and she's developing perfectly. We saw the 10 most adorable fingers and toes ever, all 4 chambers of her heart, and all the right parts of her brain. This was wonderful news for momma and daddy! We'll make sure to keep everyone posted on any new developments as they come.

She had her hands by her mouth almost the entire hour we were looking at her

Look at that teeny baby foot! It's only 2 cm long...

The Holidays

At my graduation dinner

Christmas Morning

Christmas with the Thelins (look at how cool our stockings are!)

Sledding (I was really cold)

Well, after another long sabbatical, I am back. We had such a great month with our family and friends. In the beginning of December, I officially graduated college! It feels like it's been such a long time coming, but really it was only 3 years, so I can't complain. But, boy does it feel good to be all done, forever! (That is, of course, unless I decide to go to graduate school, which would be a whole new ball-game.) Jade, Tink, and I all drove down to Vegas mid-December, but Jade only got to stay a weekend before returning back to Utah to work. Tink and I got to stay in Vegas and play with our favorite people (Roxy and Louis in Tink's case). It's so sad to watch Tink try to play with those old dogs. They think she's fun for about a minute, and then they get sick of her, and she just doesn't understand at all. She just loves to play! (As a side note, we're so happy that Jerai and Phil are back in Utah; especially Tink, who loves Remy more than her own parents!) Jade came back to Vegas to stay around the 19th, and we had a graduation dinner to celebrate my big achievement. It was so nice, and let me reiterate: it feels SO good to be done! Jade was quite sick for a few days, so I had lots of girl-time shopping and the like with my momma. I miss Las Vegas so much! We had a really big Christmas Eve dinner with all the Pettyjohn clan, plus some friends. It was so great to have everyone together. It's getting to be so hard to actually get everyone to the same place at the same time with everybody's busy schedules. So we celebrated the birth of our Savior in our traditional way; together as a family, with lots of laughter (and even more food). Christmas morning we woke up at 6:45 and saw what Santa brought us. We opened up presents and ate a little bit, then Jade and I rushed off to the airport to fly to Portland to celebrate Christmas with the Thelins. Christmas Day was great, we had a big dinner with the entire Thelin clan, then we performed the Nativity with the kids. The highlights: a 20 lb. baby Jesus, Max playing "Ammon" in the Nativity, complete with a sword "to cut people's arms off with", Gabe in a tutu, and me in a 1980's blue bridesmaid's dress, being a wise-woman. It was hilarious and so fun to do with the kids. The next day we all went to the temple together, which was so neat (Nea we missed you). Then we went to a big cabin/home in Sun River, (Central) Oregon, to spend the rest of the week. We had such a great time (all 12 adults and 7 children ages 8 and under). We built giant snowmen, a snow cave as big as a mini-van, and we went sledding. Jade tried his hand at "surfing" on his sled, which lasted about 20 feet before he wiped out and banged his knee up pretty badly. It was pretty funny to watch, though I did feel bad afterwards. We rang in the New Year with our nieces and nephews around 9:00, then we played games after the kids went to bed, and around 11:00 we all got tired, so we had an early toast and called it a night. Jade and I did wake up at midnight, kissed and said Happy New Year, then went back to bed. New Years Day we flew back to Vegas and then left for Utah a few hours later. It was a pretty long vacation, but I could have stayed even longer! We had such a great time with everyone and we just want to say thanks and we love you all so much! Happy New Year!

The last month

Christmas picture (how mad does Tinkie look at us)

BYU v. TCU

After my brief sabbatical from blogspot, I have returned. Maybe not tanner, but definitely heavier after a week long cruise (do you know how much they feed you?!). Since my last post, we have been quite busy, but haven't actually done much. Isn't it funny how that happens? Jade's been a workaholic, and I have been quite busy finishing my last few weeks of school. For the record, in one week I will be a college graduate! Finally. BYU killed TCU, and we were once again on the sideline, cheering on our cougars. Basically the only other event worth noting would be the cruise we went on with my family for Thanksgiving. It was to the Western Caribbean and Central America. We had so much fun. The weather was kind of a bummer, because 3 out of the 4 port days were rainy, but nevertheless, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Cozumel, Mexico was our first stop. We went with an LDS group to see the Mayan ruins there, which were really neat, and the scenery was spectacular. Belize City, Belize was stop number two. We went with that same LDS group to another set of Mayan ruins. These were really cool, because to get to them, we had to take a speed boat ride through a river in the jungle, and we could climb to the top of the temples. Exercise and culture. What more could we ask for? Sun. Our third stop was Roatan, Honduras. This was the beautiful day, and the most fun. We went on a zip-line tour through the top of the trees in the jungle. We also did tight-rope walking, rope bridges, and the like. The best part of the day was playing with the owner's pet: a monkey! His name was poncho and he was about 20lbs, and 4 feet tall from fingers to toes. I got to hold him, and he climbed all over me (and the rest of the fam). It was SO cool. Then we went to Freeport, Bahamas. Rainy, again, and kind of ghetto. We went shopping and the boys went to the beach. Other than that, we had 3 days at sea, where we spent the majority of the time catching up on sleep, eating, and playing games. I am the English Rummy champion! It's been hard being back in the 30 degree weather, and especially hard not having a chef and wait staff at my service. We're super busy trying to catch up with things before Christmas break, but though we're going crazy, we're still having fun. The highlight of being back in Utah was taking down Thanksgiving decorations and putting Christmas decorations up. And Christmas music. I love my Christmas music. Jade will finally let me listen to it now that Thanksgiving is over.

Cozumel

Cozumel

Halloween Fiesta

Curly (Jade), Madam Kate Elder (Ash), Outlaw Queen Belle Starr (Steph), Outlaw Wood Hite (Shane)

Jade, Chad, Ryan, Ashton, Randi, Megan

(Curly, Eddie, Buster, Kate, Sophie, Twila)

Becca and Kelly (Elena and Zorro), Jade and Ashton (Curly and Kate), Anna and Markell (Annie and Wyatt)

No costume store in Provo/Orem had a cowboy costume big enough for Tink, so this is what we ended up with!

Jade and I don't have any kids to take trick-or-treating, we're obviously not into the typical Provo "Halloween dance party" scene, and none of our friends were doing anything fun for Halloween. So we had no idea how we were going to celebrate this year. I somehow got this brilliant idea in September to throw a Halloween party on Halloween, for those of our friends who also don't have children to spend Halloween with. Now, you all know me very well, and simple just doesn't work for me. A little get-together with a few friends and paper plates is GREAT, it just isn't my style. I somehow feel obligated to go over the top with anything I do. So I threw this elaborate, old-fashioned, wild west party, complete with assigned characters (who were actual people that lived back then), a saloon (which I'm still trying to turn back into my house), and an open bar, with bartender (curly Jack Jamison, AKA Jade). I cannot even tell you how much time I spent on this party. I was like a crazy woman for about 2 weeks before the 31st. Poor Jade had no idea what he was in for. Well, the party was a success, and everyone had a great time (or at least I hope so). We had an uproarious game of BUNCO, and I think the boys were more into it than the girls! I've never seen such competition over 3 dice! Anyway, it was a really fun Halloween, but I'm sure glad it's over. Now onto my next big project: graduating...

12 more days

On the giant slide at the corn maze

Leroy

Scarecrow, Tink, and a kitty

So can everyone guess how long until I graduate? 12 days! Not 12 days total, but 12 more days of classes and then I'm done! I'm so excited and so happy I've been fortunate enough to go to school. (sorry about the cheese). I can't imagine living somewhere where I wasn't allowed to get an education because I'm a female. Which brings me to my big question. Graduate school. Should I go? I've been seriously contemplating it lately. Who knows. What else am I supposed to do? I can't work in counseling unless I have a MS anyway. So yeah, let me know. I take all of your opinions very seriously. Let's see... We were supposed to go to the game last weekend in San Diego, unfortunately it was postponed due to fires. We're really disappointed we didn't get to take our little trip, but we wish everyone in that area all the best. The past several days has been a lot of planning for our Halloween Mystery Dinner on Wednesday. Hopefully it's a lot of fun. I'm going to Vegas this Friday, so all you Vegas people better call me! Josh is getting married! Congrats Josh, we're so happy for you. Over the weekend we carved pumpkins. Jade made a "Tink" pumpkin and I made a scarecrow (we did it with Steph and Shane, Steph made a cat and Shane made a mummy and threw it away because "it didn't look good enough"). We went to an open house/Halloween dress up party for our friends Randi and Chad. That was fun too. Jade was a gaucho and I was a Renaissance girl. We had the best costumes until a couple showed up dressed as stereotypical old people, complete with a musk body spray and powdery grey hair. Pretty clever. We also went with Steph and Shane to a corn maze and a haunted corn maze. We got the corn maze right on the very first try- in fact, it only took us about 15 minutes. We thought that was a little creepy, since the last time Jade went to that corn maze, he and all his friends raced to finish first, and it took each of them no less than an hour. SO weird. The haunted corn maze was very, very scary. My blood pressure was through the roof. In fact, when I got out of there, I was sweating, despite the fact that it was only in the high 30's and windy. So not good for my health. I kept screaming to the "spooks" that they weren't allowed to touch me... "You can't touch me, don't touch me, it's ILLEGAL for you to touch me!" I bet they were so annoyed at me. Anyway, we had a really fun (and scary) time. Also at the corn maze: Leroy, the world's largest pig, weighing in at about 1,200 lbs, goats that ate out of my hand, and little baby pigs that we pet and fed pumpkins to. It was SO neat. Up this week: the Halloween party and Las Vegas. Can't wait!

White Out

That's us leaving the game. I know you can't see our faces, but look at that snowstorm!
So we went to the best football game yesterday! Well, it wasn't the best game, but we had the best time... BYU vs. Eastern Washington (I know, right). So Jade somehow managed to get us sideline passes to the game, which was so fun. We were hanging out right by the team, and at one point (when we were beating them so badly that Bronco- yes we're on a first name basis, or at least I think so- put in our second string) Jade distracted one of his best friends who is a player, and had him come over and chat for a minute. It's not quite the same as cheering at a game, but it was still fun being there. That's not even the best part. It was (literally) freezing, and there was a blizzard. Almost a white-out. We stuck it out though, and had so much fun. We just wore lots of layers. We didn't realize how cold it was until we got to the car and our feet were so frozen that they were itching as they started to thaw. That was a problem, but we had such a fun game day!

Vegas Vacation

Renaissance Fair

At the game

What a week! Jade was on business in Denver two weeks ago, then he came back and went on the elk hunt with his big brother. Unfortunately (and I use this term lightly) they didn't catch anything. Fortunately (and I use this term lightly too) there is a deer hunt this weekend, so maybe this time we'll get something. Last Wednesday Jade and I went to Vegas. We got in around 1am, then Jade left to go to Zion for a "work" camping/mountain biking/hiking outing. I spent Thursday and Friday with my momma and the kids, getting ready for Chaz's sweet 16 party. Friday Jade got back and there was a monster party at the Pettyjohn's. Approximately 60 of Chaz's closest friends came over for swimming, a jumping house, a jousting tournament, a strong-man striker machine, a fortune teller, a caricature artist, cotton candy, popcorn, nachos, brats and dessert. It turned out great. We only had a few minor problems: food in the pool, a hole burned in one of the pool chairs, and 2 girls in my brother's shower (NO, my brother was not involved). Anyway, thank goodness that is over! Saturday we went to the Renaissance Fair in Henderson. My mom, Cheyanne, and I dressed up, Jade and Chaz passed on the tights, and JC declined the invitation to come in the first place. It was cool, though I must say, it drew an odd crowd. I never knew "gothic" people enjoyed Shakespeare. I say no less than 3 couples that were sporting an "S and M" look: one partner had a leash in his hand that was connected to a spike collar around the neck of his partner. Yes, at least three different couples, no exaggeration. Saturday night we went to the BYU v. UNLV game, where we totally worked the #2 team in the conference, thank you very much. I know I have absolutely nothing to do with the victory, but that's beside the point. So the game was good. Sunday we laid out by the pool and barbecued some steaks. It's always hard to leave Las Vegas. It's been especially hard getting back to the routine. I ditched almost every class on Monday. I sometimes think breaks from school do me more harm than good!

BYU v. USAFA

So this weekend Jade's parents came into town! It was great having them here with us, since we only get to see them about three times a year. The highlights of the trip are as follows: 1) I ditched school on Friday, 2) Breakfast at Magleby's, which was a thousand times better than school could have been, 3) Seeing the movie Becoming Jane and crying three times, 4) Getting poured on at the game on Saturday, and last but not least 5) Never again having to wear "blues" as long as I live. The game was pretty bittersweet for me. I have friends on both teams and affiliations with both schools. What's a girl to do? I couldn't decide who to cheer for, so I wore a BYU shirt with an AFA jacket. I figured I covered all my bases. I always wonder what my life would've been like if I would've stayed at the Air Force Academy. We decided I probably would've been at that game, just wearing an AFA cheerleading uniform and not married to my Jade. Isn't it funny how things always seem to work out! I was super nostalgic though, and did go say hi to the one last girl that I knew on the squad. I am so grateful that my life is not what it would've been, had I stayed at USAFA.

Our big Vacations

Well, it's been a heck of a couple weeks. Sunday the 2nd we drove to Vegas, dropped Tink off at my mom's house, and Monday early we drove to LA for a "work" vacation. Is there even such a thing? We went on a cruise with Stampede, and we had so much fun! Our cruise was baja California/Mexico, so we went to San Diego (where we visited the San Diego Zoo), Catalina (where we had an "Olympics" contest with the company and played some great beach volleyball), and Ensenada (where we visited La Bufadora, which is like one of 3 natural blow-holes in the entire world). Anyway, it was a really great trip. We got back to LA Friday the 7th, and that night we went to an Anaheim Angels baseball game. It wasn't that great of a game, but it was still really fun. Then Saturday we went to the Rose Bowl for the BYU v. UCLA game. It was rather unfortunate... We really should have won. I'm seriously upset with PAC-10 Referee's and I honestly think they might have had money on the game or something. I'm just glad BYU is doing an NCAA challenge, because that game was pretty fixed. Go Cougars! We got back to Vegas Saturday night, and hung out with my family Sunday morning, before driving back to Provo. It sure is hard getting back to everyday life after being on vacation for a week. I had a week of school, and Jade had work. I had cheerleading practice, and Jade played softball on his friend's team. I also forgot to mention something- I got called to be the Bear Scout Assistant in Cub Scouts. So I'm in charge of six 9-year old boys. It's pretty crazy! I have a really good Bear "mom" though, who I get along with great. We had our first activity on Wednesday, and it turned out great. Just FYI, kickball is a great activity for 9-year old boys. This week it's going to be at my house though, and I think I might have a coronary before the night is over. My "mom" is going out of town, so it's just going to be me. Thank goodness for Jade!! Friday night we flew to Tulsa, Oklahoma. What were we doing in Tulsa, you may ask. Following the BYU football team, of course. Saturday we went to Oklahoma City, and went to the temple, and that night we went to the game. It was another depressing game, but this time it was the team's fault, not the referee's. Although out of 14 flags thrown, only 2 (yes TWO) were against Tulsa. So maybe there was a little bias there, but still, we didn't play our best. Anyway, we're back in town for another great week. Jade's parents are coming to visit on Thursday, and we couldn't be more excited! Jade has all sorts of "fun" things planned for dad and him. Example: going to the mountains at 4am to look at where elk may be next month during the hunt. Mom, we'll have to go get our nails done or something!

This is my baby gorilla. When I was looking at him, he woke up from his nap, and scooted over to the glass, looking at me. Then, I put my finger up to the glass, and he put his finger up to mine. It was love at first sight.

Catalina Island

La Bufadora (not quite as cool as they made it sound, but worth the $20 cab ride)

This is Tink and daddy cuddling. Look closely. Tink is asleep. She sleeps on her back, right up against us. Have you ever seen a puppy behave in such a way?

pink toenails, cheerleading, and our one year anniversary.

Horseback Riding by Fish Lake

First and foremost, Tink got her first mani/pedi. She looks fantastic with her hot pink nails!! Jade almost had a heart attack, but so far EVERYONE I've asked says it looks cute. Also, I was offered a position as assistant cheerleading coach at UVSC! I'm not getting paid, but the coach is retiring, so basically I'm apprenticing so I can hopefully take over next year. I'm having a blast, even though I am sad I'm not cheering at a Division I school anymore. I'm quite nostalgic, especially since it's football season once again. Anyway, I'm totally stoked about my new job. So, I'm back to school again. It's been interesting to say the least. You see, somehow I got fortunate enough to have 9 elective credits that needed to be filled, so out of 5 classes, I really only have two "serious" ones. Those two are great, but my 3 elective classes are quite different, because since they're electives, they're freshman classes. I'm in classes with 17 and 18 year olds, which isn't that much younger than me, but I've been married a year, and I think I'm probably a little more mature than the average 21 year old. I feel like I'm about 10 years older than my classmates. Also, the teachers teach quite differently then senior level teachers. I feel like I'm in Junior High. One teacher (this is a communication class), makes us do breathing exercises for the first 10-15 minutes of class. We "let go" of our bodies, and we "listen to the building breathe". We also "find the building's heartbeat". It's an easy class, so I'm not complaining, it's just a little difficult for me to stifle my laughter in that class. Other than that, I'm really liking my last semester. I do have a bad case of senior-itis though. Our anniversary on the 31st was AMAZING!!! I don't know how I got so lucky to have Jade as a husband. After I got home from school that Friday, we drove up to Park City, to the Stein Erickson Lodge. I had never even heard of this place, but it was INCREDIBLE!!! It's a gorgeous resort/lodge, and apparently it's Utah's only 5 diamond, 4 star resort. Anyway, we had a private suite that even had a hot tub on the balcony. After we got settled in our room, Jade took me down to the concierge, where there were horses waiting for us! So we went on a 2 hour ride all around the mountains and it was BEAutiful. Then we went back to our room and got cleaned up and guess what my little romancer had set up for me... Our wedding cake! He had the flower arrangement recreated, and hot pink rose petals all over, and 2 champagne glasses, with a bottle of Martinelli's to toast! We ate the traditional bite of the cake for good luck, and toasted our first year down and forever to go. Then we went to dinner at PRIME Steakhouse in Park City. If you've never been there before, I would highly recommend it. Anyway, we had a wonderful anniversary. As if the weekend couldn't get any better, BYU KILLED Arizona the following day. We were pretty elated, especially since the Arizona coach engaged in some bad-talking against BYU before the game. Anyway, tomorrow we leave for our vacation, so I'm pretty excited for that. It's going to be another great week.

Look at her CUTE nails! She feels like a lady now.

The BYU v. Arizona Game. You would not believe how hot is was. I had cooler games in Las Vegas.

Our Cake. Surprisingly enough, it was still pretty good after being frozen for a year.

Dinner on Anniversary night.