***Andrew Heather Ella Easton Addie***

We enjoyed Thanksgiving very much this year! The food was great and being with our families was even better!!!

Introducing our little Ella:

Born November 17th at 1:26 P.M. She is so cute we can't get enough of her. She weighed 6 pounds 13 ounces and is 20" long. She can't wait to meet her family soon in Utah!!!

October has been a very busy month! We started it off with conference weekend! Conference was wonderful! To make it feel more like home we made the traditional Sunday morning breakfast of sausage fondue, fruit, and chocolate milk! Saturday during both sessions we made applesauce! It turned out very pink but it smelled and tasted so good! We got twenty two pints in all and between batches of applesauce we made strawberry and raspberry jam! We got 14 jars of raspberry and 4 of strawberry! It was a lot of work but it is worth it now and in the months to come!





Last weekend we did the vision walk which SCO is one the biggest donors for. They let any of the students that want to do it and one of the teachers offers an incentive for the students to do it. It was a three mile walk which I (Heather) accomplished but was sore from later! It was good to get out, a little chilly but Andrew gets one of his quizzes dropped for doing it so it is all worth it in the end!






As part of the Homecoming weekend at SCO the day after the White Coat Ceremony they have a big barbecue catered by one of the local barbecue restaurants! They have blow up toys, silent auction, bean bags, mini golf, rock wall, and of course the most popular there the all you can drink beer stations which is why most people really came. The food was good (especially our all you can drink water) and the weather was perfect!

Last Thursday was Andrew's official white coat ceremony where they receive their white coats.He is now officially a student doctor! It is a two hour long ceremony where they give awards and scholarships out to all the students in the school. They also do lifetime achievement awards to past alumni. The President of the school also chooses a couple people from the staff at the school to receive some sort of Employee of the year award (can't remember exactly what it is but something to that effect) and this year the maintenance guy got one of the awards! He was shocked! They then read all the names of the first year students and they have to walk across the stage and shake the presidents hand and get their picture taken, just like a graduation ceremony is what it summed up to be. After your name is read they have to go back to their seat and stand until everyones has been read and they recite the optometric oath. Andrew was 17 of the 124 to be read so he stood pretty much the entire time. The best part of the ceremony was the lady behind me before it started and after Andrew had walked away from me asked if my son or daughter was receiving their white coat! Do I look that old and if I did have a child receiving it I probably wouldn't be pregnant with another!?! The best part was she was dead serious and then she said nothing else after that I think she was a little embarassed! He is still doing great in school and studies very hard!

Shaking the President's Hand



Walking in

Walking out after it was over

Us

Us again I don't remember what was so funny


The day was just to good that something had to go wrong! This is our windsheild now after a lovely rock hit it! We just got a new windsheild in JUNE!!!

Just a little congratulations to my awesome husband who came home last night with his first test in optometry school.....he got 100% and a Mickey Mouse sticker that said #1 on it! Way to go sweetie!!!!

This summer went by so fast! We enjoyed it by spending as much time with family and friends as we could. Some things we did included:

*Packing
*Going to St. George for a friends wedding
*Enjoying the fireworks at Taylorsville Dayzz
*4th of July with both our families
*Packing
*Andrew ran in the 10K on the 24th of July
*Finding out we are having a girl!
*Participating in the Amazing Race with our neighborhood for date night! It was a lot of fun!
*Tons of birthday parties and cake!
*Packing somemore
*Finally being done packing and loading our car and moving 1500 miles away

The highlight of our summer was taking a small vacation on our way to Memphis to see some historical church sites. We left on August 7th but not before we could get some sibling pictures. I couldn't stop crying as usual it had finally hit that we were leaving and not coming back for a long time. We drove to Denver the first day. I-70 through Colorado is a lot of mountains terrains but it was so pretty and green.

The 2nd day we drove to Independence, MO and stayed the night
The 3rd day we went to the Independence Visitors Center and Liberty Jail. They both have such a great spirit in them. We then drove onto Nauvoo.
The 4th day we did a Session in the Nauvoo Temple which was such a cool experience. The rest of the day we toured Nauvoo and ended the night with the Sunset on Mississippi performance by the missionaries and Vocal Point from BYU.
The 5th day we saw all the plays that the missionaries put on and ate at the yummy buffet.
The 6th day was my birthday! We drove to Carthage Jail and did the tour. The spirit there is so strong. We then drove to St. Louis and stopped at the Arch after parking in the scariest part of town! Then we drove on to Memphis! We didn't get in until 1 in the morning it was a long day!
The next day we had to be up early to sign our lease and get to my doctors appt by 10! We were so exhausted! My family and Andrew's mom and Karl stayed until Sunday the 16th. We toured downtown Memphis and rode on the trolley and walked Beale street. It was so humid that day so it wasn't very fun! We also enjoyed eating at Corky's BBQ which is so good. Andrew, his mom and Karl, and my dad went to Graceland and the Hard Rock Cafe while the rest of us went to the outlets! We also showed them the temple here in Memphis! They left on Sunday after sacrament meeting in our new ward. It was hard to say goodbye but we will be back home for a visit in a little bit more then two months!
Pictures before we left don't mind my red puffy eyes from crying so much!

The ghetto where we parked to see the arch

The Arch

Outside Carthage Jail

Games in Nauvoo

Women's Monument in Nauvoo my grandma Pond was on the General Relief Society board when it was dedicated and got to participate in that!

Nauvoo Temple

Above and Below: After our session in the Temple!



The Corn Fields of Kansas!

We are still alive it has been a long month but we are finally starting to get settled. We are waiting for the internet to be set up but my nice friend Kate let me come over and borrow hers! We got here on the 12th of August and signed our contract to move in the next day. Our truck ended up not being here when they said so my family was not able to help us unload it but it was fine because we got to play more instead! It finally came the day after they left and we had some ward members come and help us unload. Well about a week later we had complained because the people below us were really loud their TV was on really early in the morning or late at night and it was so loud we knew what they were watching channel and all! So we complained that Friday and they went and told them to turn it down. Well the whole weekend it got worse we added salt to the wound! So on Monday we complained again and things went downhill fast. They sent someone over that morning and then that night we were sitting on the couch when we hear knocking downstairs, they knocked three times before they answered, well they had sent the courtesy officer over to try and talk to them because they weren’t being compliant to the management. Well about ten minutes later we hear the door slam and then the yelling began the guy downstairs became irate and we heard all sorts of things, we were labeled racist crackers and what not we could hear it all. It was scary I was shaking and crying we were both scared for our lives. We finally managed to get out of the house and went and found a hotel to stay at for the night. The next day we went and talked to the management about it and they let us out of our lease and within two hours we had a new place to live! The sad part was the yelling continued everyday when we were there and I could hear a little girl just sobbing I felt so awful. The next day we had the Elders come and help us and some more ward friends and we got most everything out. The only time in life when procrastination has been good was in this situation because we had hardly unpacked anything. Our new place seems better and we have good neighbors. We finally got everything out of the old place on the first because they are evicting the other people and wanted to give them their notice and they were also pressing charges against the guy because apparently the officer heard it all too! They told Andrew that if he needs to come back to get mail or anything after that to come alone and not bring me just to be safe. We really weren’t trying to make problems we just wanted some peace and quiet at 6 in the morning. It has been an adventure but everything has worked out and we are glad about that. Andrew started school on the 31st of August and is enjoying it but has a lot of work to do to keep up!
We will hopefully be able to post more about our summer and our fun trip out here once we get the internet all set up!



The view from our house


The view of our house


Mississippi River Park in Tunica they have rocking chairs to just relax in and watch the river!


Andrew on the first day of school!



Our First Apartments and our moving truck!

That's right Baby Bibo is due to arrive around November 16, 2009!!!

Lately we have been trying to enjoy the weather. It has been a while since we updated we celebrated Easter with both of our families first we had lunch with Andrew's mom and his family then we had dinner with all of my extended family. It was a nice holiday and was nice to remember the true meaning of the holiday. We have also been trying to sell our condo which has been tricky. If anyone knows of anyone who wants to buy it let us know, we might just rent it if it comes down to that but we would really like to not have to worry about it since we will be 1500+ miles away.

At the beginning of the month we both were able to graduate!!! It is such a huge accomplishment for the both of us and it was such a great day to be able to celebrate all our accomplishments with our families. It is also nice to have Andrew home at nights and not worrying about studying!

This last weekend we were able to have a little getaway Andrew took time off work so we decided to go down to St. George for two days. We enjoyed the sun! We went swimming, ate a lot, drove through some Canyons by Zions and saw some reservoirs, drove out by Tuacahn, played some board games, slept in, and shopped a little. It was so relaxing to not have anything to do we really enjoyed ourselves and came back refreshed and ready to start planning our big move which is not cheap to move your stuff across the country, but ABF will be doing it for us, all the driving and stuff which turns out to be almost a thousand dollars less then renting a truck and driving it ourselves which is a lot especially in this economy!

Also Andrew took my little sister's Senior pictures last week. He was so excited he loves photography and wants to learn more. He loves his camera, I am going to have a hard time for Christmas' to come to be able to top that gift. I must say he did a great job and was so happy with his outcome he stayed up that night until almost 4 editing and making movies out of them!


Few Pictures from Easter:





Few Pictures from Graduation:









Here are a few of the pictures Andrew took of Katy:











Us at the temple


One of the Reservoirs we walked around

At the end of March we flew out to Memphis to look for homes, we were excited to go we had found some homes that were around fairly cheap compared to Utah but the ones we ended up seeing, a lot of foreclosures, everything was so disgusting. We did see a few we liked. I just don't understand people, if you want to sell your house so desperately clean it up our realtor kept getting calls about how these people are really motivated to sell, if your that motivated then dust or make it presentable. We finally found one we absolutely loved it had been all redone, it was a little higher then we wanted but it was perfect and had half an acre and while we were walking through it our realtor got a call that he had just written the contract for the people who wanted to sell it, we were a little bummed, it was only a block from the temple! We are still keeping our options open but will probably just rent which is fine, it makes it easier to leave in the end. This would be the extent of the pictures we took in the five days we were there lame I know but we literally spent the whole time looking for somewhere to live! Plus we will be there for 3 years at least so that is plenty of time to take pictures!


The school/Andrew's home for the next 3 years! It was pouring rain when we were there so it was hard to get a good picture.


The Memphis Temple, it is so pretty and a lot smaller then it looks it was smaller then the Stake Center next to it!


The things people have in their houses, get rid of your garbage before you show people you house, it is more appealing that way!


This was the first house we looked at it was on a lake and it was selling for $110,000! So Cheap!

A few weeks ago we had a chance to escape the snow for the sun! We went down to see Andrew's mom and her husband Karl. We left of on Friday morning and headed for Gilbert, Arizona! It was a long drive but went by fast. We arrived that night and went right to bed. Saturday we got up after sleeping in to Pancakes, Sausage, Omelets, and Fresh Squeezed Orange juice from the trees in their yard. It was so good. This is how it was every morning hot breakfast with yummy juice! It was like staying at a bed and breakfast but free. That day we took a long drive through the Tonto mountains. We saw 3 dams and reservoirs. It was really pretty! We also got to see some Indian ruins at Besh ba Gowah (sp?). Then we drove back and Andrew and I went and drove around alone and we and found the Mesa Temple. It was so nice out it was nice to not go outside and freeze. Sunday we went to church and some of Karl's kids came over and visited. Monday we went to the mall, a really great mall with outlet and clearance stores. I got a few shirts and didn't pay more then $5 for them! One of the reasons I said we would go down there was for the mall, and it didn't disappoint. For lunch we went to Joe's Farm Grill(another reason we had to come down), Andrew had seen them on the Food Network and had to try it. It was really good! That night we went Miniature Golfing together! It was so much fun! Andrew ended up beating me by one stroke in the last two holes, I creamed him the rest of the time. Then we went to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings! It was so good they need to open one in Utah. The next morning we got up, filled our trunk with fresh lemons and oranges and drove home. We were sad to leave because it had been so relaxing and in the 80's the whole time we didn't want to come back to the cold and snow. It was fun to get away and see his mom since she has been gone since December. We hope we can have many more trips down in the years to come!