A Wonderful Weekend with my Mom

I have the best mom in the entire world. She is so loving and giving, and I am so lucky to have her as my mom. She never thinks of herself but always puts others first. She was so sweet to come out and visit me this past weekend. It's been hard being pregnant and not having her here to share all of this with. I couldn't wait to see her, and the trip went even better than I expected. We did LOTS of shopping, ate some good food, and just hung out. It was wonderful. One day, I hope I can be half the Mom she is to me. This is the crew at Cafe Rio enjoying Friday night dinner. It was so fun to have everyone together. I wish my Dad could have been there too. I can't wait to see him in January, along with my beautiful little sister Kellie. My brother Bryan is coming too! It's going to be wonderful.

On Saturday we had to watch the football game. Even though the game didn't turn out like we wanted, we still had a great time. Josh made his famous salsa, and we ate some yummy birthday cake. Our friend Kim came out with my mom, and her birthday was the next day so we celebrated during the game. It was fun to have Kim here too!

Josh was outnumbered this weekend. My mom, Kim, Anna, and I took over the house. I think he liked it though!

It was a wonderful weekend!

Fall Pictures

Since Fall is almost over, we decided we had better hurry up and take some pictures in the leaves! My sister Stephani and her husband Anthony found a beautiful apple orchard - a perfect place for Fall pictures. These are our favorites:

We love our little baby Anna. Daddy can't help but kiss the beautiful women in his life (see pictures above and below).

Yep, we still got it.

And just for fun...

Stephani and Anthony are very photogenic. Our kids will definitely have some cute cousins!

You won't believe this one....

So, I come home from school on Monday and there is a note on the door that says, "Please knock before coming in." Unfortunately, I saw it as I was opening the door, (but all is well). There standing is my incredibly wonderful husband with our video camera in hand and a big grin on his face. He was standing behind our new ROCKING CHAIR!! He surprised me and bought me this rocking chair while I was at school. He even put a pink bow on it. I was so surprised!

BUT, here is the real story. I drive to school everyday because I'm lazy and don't want to walk. So, I had the car. Josh contacted the previous owner and rode his bike to his house to go look at it. He thought it was a good deal and bought it for only twenty bucks. To get it home, Josh rode 12 blocks on his bike with one hand on his handle bar and the other hand carrying this HUGE rocking chair uphill!!!!!!!! Can you believe that?!!! Then, he had to go all the way back to get the ottoman. He said his muscles were dying by the end, but he really wanted to surprise me. Now, if that isn't a good story, I don't know what is. Josh is seriously the most thoughtful, sweetest person in this world. He always does the most wonderful things. I can't believe he's mine.

I LOVE my new chair. Over Thanksgiving break, we're going to refinish it to have a darker brown wood and make a slip cover to cover up the ugly green. We're excited to have a project to do. I can't wait to rock my little baby girl in that chair and now, I have a great story to tell with it.

BABY Shower!

I had my baby shower this weekend! It was so much fun! I definitely have the most wonderful friends in the world. They worked so hard to put it all together, and it turned out great! I feel really grateful for our friendship together. All of these girls deserve the best!
The shower was wonderful. My brother-in-law Anthony actually helped make the diaper cake shown above. Impressive Anth! I loved it. I've never seen diapers look so cute. We played lots of fun games, ate delicious food, and I got a lot of very cute presents. It was a great day.

I think ALL baby clothes are so cute because they're so tiny! I can't wait to try everything on my little angel.

It was definitly great to get the essentials. Josh and I haven't really bought the needed supplies yet, so I was very grateful for them!

Erica, in the foreground, is one of the sweetest people in the world. She has a great heart!! She is getting married in December so who knows, it might not be long til I'm going to her baby shower.

Stephanie Lovelace is in the background, and she is one of the most genuine people in the world. I've never met someone with such a great perspective and who is so caring for others. She is definitely a great example to me.

My sister-in-law, Stephani, made me this beautiful blanket for Anna. She is very talented, and I'm definitely lucky to have her as my sister-in-law.

One of the activities was to design little onesies. We had iron-on fabric and made little designs to decorate them. They turned out fabulous!! I can't wait to try them on Anna. Pictures to come!

Stephani had a pretty creative and cute saying -- "Don't wake me, I'll wake you." I'm sure that will come true as soon as Anna arrives.

The one with hearts is Anna's Valentine's outfit, designed by Camille. The "a" is an original design by Erin Johnson, very fashionable this year.

The latest Erica brand is sporting a fashionable yellow to accentuate the beauty of the name, "Anna." Good choice Erica!

The classic "Lo" design by Lauren Gillespie has caught the attention of many moms and dads around the apartment. It is sure to be enjoyed by all.

This is a mother's original, PRICELESS, designed for bright spring time days. This design will only be complete by the added accessory of a large red bow.

Camille, beautiful as always, was wonderful in helping prepare food for the occasion, which turned out wonderfully. Camille and I were roommates all through college. It won't be long til I can throw her a baby shower, (she's not pregnant; I'm just excited for when she is).

Whitney, Amberly, and I have been friends for about two and a half years now. They are so wonderful. Everything is more fun when they're around.

Alisa is absolutely wonderful. She and I moved into our current ward the same week and have pretty much been great friends since. She and her husband are some of our very favorite people to hang out with. I'm really lucky to have her as a friend.

The ol' gang together again. I love these girls. Whenever we get together, it's as if nothing has changed. Sometimes you just know when you're going to be friends forever, and I'm sure this is going to be the case with these girls.

Josh and I bought a baby swing yesterday. We didn't want to buy one at the store because we'll be moving after this year and will have to sell it. We found this one on craigslist for $40. It was a great deal; it's almost brand new. This lady said that her son didn't like the swing, and so he never hardly used it. We're so excited to put Anna in it. I think this will be one of the many lifesavers for those sleepless nights.

PhD School, here we come!!!!

Well, for those of you who don't already know, Josh and I have decided that Josh should pursue a PhD in Accounting. We have been thinking about this for about five months now and feel really good about our decision. We both graduate in April from BYU and hope to start PhD school in the fall. We are on a whole different path than what we thought we would be but are really excited to push forward.
Eventually, Josh will be an accounting professor and do research. I'm so excited!! I know that Josh is going to be a WONDERFUL professor. He is a great teacher and is so intelligent that I know he'll be a great asset for his students and colleagues.
Part of getting into PhD school is taking the GMAT. Josh has been studying for this test for a couple of months now. Today was finally test day!! Neither of us could sleep last night. I thought I would go crazy waiting for his phone call. When I heard his ringtone on my phone, my heart lept. He got a 710!!!! We were both so excited. Now we can focus on applications. We are so excited about this next phase of our lives together. I am so proud of my sweetheart! He deserved such a good grade. We both know that this was a big blessing for our family. We had to celebrate and what better way to celebrate than going to Cafe Rio. It was delicious. We need to find more reasons to celebrate so we can go to Cafe Rio more often. mMm!!!

Pregnancy Update

Diana is now 29 and a half weeks pregnant and is looking stunning as always. I don't know how I got such a beautiful, wonderful wife!

Anna is becoming more and more active every day and sometimes I wonder if she's practicing to become a professional boxer. If not, kickboxing is always a good alternative as she's had plenty of practice on her mommy's ribs. Either would be fine with me.

Halloween

We had a really fun Halloween. We went to Chris and Erin Mecklenburg's Halloween party and had a great time. I dressed up as a dead person and Diana dressed up as a mummy so we were "Deady and Mummy." Thank you Google for coming through on our costume idea. It was really hard to get Diana all covered in toilet paper. It kept on ripping. But I'm glad it did because I think it's the only time in my life that I'll hear my wife exclaim, "I just ripped a big one!"
Charles dressed up as a scarecrow and Emily was a vampire.

Danny and Amy were incredibly convincing gothic people. Danny especially played the part really well, taking as inspiration a bunch of crazy people from our high school.

Here's the group of us. Chris and Erin had pretty incredible mexican costumes. I think we were all just wondering why Chris didn't grow a real mustache. We all know it would have only taken a few hours. And we would have all been extremely jealous.

Este es Dianita, la momia!

These appetizers weren't all that appetizing, but they looked really cool.

I do a really good dead person impression, I know.

On Saturday, we watched the BYU game with Ryan and Alisa Harrison. It was so much fun! Go BYU! Afterward, we had our ward Halloween party. This was our third time carving pumpkins this Halloween season.

We know, we look good!