Some good things have happened lately. Last weekend my sister, her son Jared, and I camped in Moab for a couple of days. We hiked the Arches National Park and really loved its beauty and warm weather.

Jared was a great boy the whole trip, but on the way back he had a hard time! We brought him along for entertainment. We stayed at a pretty good campsite. It wasn't as primitive as we were hoping, but it had a fire pit which was our top priority. We were able to make a fire, eat tin foil dinners, smores, roast Starburst candies, talk, and then try to sleep. It was actually a rough night, being soooo cold. There was frost covering the entire tent when we woke up. But we loved the experience.

Vance and I went to the Saturday afternoon session of general conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Above is a picture of Kelsey, my grandpa Kindt, and I. We attended his mission reunion in Salt Lake City that Easter weekend. There were lots of people in attendance.

The Beginning of Pregnancy Pictures

This picture is at 14 weeks, just after eating dinner (which adds a little more to the bump).

Weekend Trip

Vance is currently on his way back from a 3 day trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma. I miss him a lot. He placed first at BYU's Mechanical Engineering Oral Guard Presentations two weeks ago, where students present the research they are doing. So he advanced to regionals in Oklahoma. He made it to the final round and received 4th place!!

This is a picture of some of the buildings on Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, OK. This is where the competition took place. Vance explained to me that this Christian university has buildings whose height represent the same height, length, and width of Noah's arc. I thought that was very interesting.

Vance will be graduating with a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering next month. He has been working so hard, and putting so many hours into his classes and research. His capstone project has taken a good portion of his time.  His team has created a prosthetic device for a woman who has lost her fingers and feet due to septicemia. This "hand" will be able to help her perform the functions it takes to run a household. The device will hopefully be able to button shirts, pick up nails, or other things we do with our hands. Vance has helped me realize how incredible not only are hands are, but are bodies as well. We are 99% sure about attending Purdue University this fall in West Lafayette, Indiana. Vance will begin his master's degree in Mechanical Engineering. We are looking forward to this fun adventure.

Although I am missing Vance, I have been able to bake cinnamon rolls, run a 5K race, plan to make a boppy pillow for the future, watch the New Moon while enjoying Panda Express last night, clean the bathroom, floors, vacuum, visit good friends, etc. As far as making this boppy pillow, I want to use an indoor canvas material with some type of gender neutral baby print, but spent an hour in JoAnn Fabrics today without any luck. Any ideas? Work has been great. Two students last week were released from speech and language therapy! A highlight was helping one girl say the /r/ at the beginning of words for the first time. I love to see childrens' excitement and feeling of accomplishment.


We are now 13 1/2 weeks into this pregnancy. Our baby should be between the sizes of a peach and a fist :) According to a fabulous book, What to Expect When You're Expecting, his vocal cords are developing this week (although I haven't heard a peep from him yet!:) Once I get a real baby bump, pictures will be posted, and hopefully regularly throughout this pregnancy. Following the 5K race this morning, I saw two adorable 4-5 year old twins. They both had a tooth or two missing, and were the cutest and blondest kids. Since Vance and I are blonde haired with blue eyes, I'm pretty sure our baby will have snow white hair early in life and likely have blue eyes. Or who knows, maybe a red head with green eyes.

Announcement

We are proud to announce the future arrival of baby Murray on September 29th! We are going to be parents and are very, very excited. We had an ultrasound one month ago. We got to see him/her and hear and see the heartbeat. Today we got to hear the heartbeat again. So far our baby appears to be healthy and growing!

Vance has been wonderful through the first trimester. I have been a bit more emotional and tired than usual, and he has been so understanding.

We are 12 weeks along and love reading the books and looking at the pictures, tracking the development all along the way. At this point, our baby is 2 inches or so long, all of its body parts are formed, but still developing, of course. It moves around lots, but is too small for me too feel him/her. It is amazing to realize that there is a real baby in there! We are so blessed!

Winter Fun

Below...Today, March 10th is my brother Peter's 13th birthday! Happy Birthday Peter! Here we are in Door County, Wisconsin last summer. Peter is such a great brother and has a great sense of humor. Lately, we've celebrated lots of our family members birthdays (father-in-law Mike, brother-in-law Jeremy, sister-in-laws Keyana and Karissa, my sister-in-law Carrie, brother Joe, nephews Hunter and Sawyer, neice Kayla.) Sooo many birthdays!

Because our husbands are both mechanical engineering students, and because they are so dedicated to studying, Kelsey, Jared, and I get to see each other often. Kelsey and Ken literally live across the street, which has been a huge blessing. Vance always makes lots of time for us, but when he is busy studying, Kelsey and I are good buds. Here we are at a basketball game recently. We got there an hour and a half before the game to get seats, but as you can see by the empty seats behind us, we could have come a little later! Jared is really growing. He is a delight to be with, is "talking" a lot, and growing fast too!

I have been WAITING AND WAITING for a good snowfall here to go sledding. Finally, there was maybe 1/2 inch on the ground. We went to a nearby hill and went sledding for 15 minutes because it was so late at night and so coldThere was so little snow that anywhere you stepped or sledded on was just grass. How funny! Here we are with our awesome sled.

Vance and I had a fun date on February 13th, the night before Valentine's Day. He got me a gorgeous bouquet of roses...on his way back from a trip from St. George. I was sooo surprised.

We are deciding where we are going to graduate schools this fall. We have heard from most schools, but still waiting to hear back from two more. We'll keep you updated!