We finally told Sophie she was going to be a big sister in January, she is VERY excited! She wants to talk about it all the time and tell me how excited she is so we came up with a sign we could do in public that means “I am really excited about the baby”, the sign is made by patting your hand over your heart two or three times. She will make a great big sister, it may take a little training to give the baby some space but in the end I am positive she will be a great big sister.

This past week we traveled to Idaho, to visit families and for Stewart to go to a Job interview in Burly, ID We left early May 30^th and drove to Bruneau, ID to spend some time with my parents and sisters. It was a nice visit and it was good to see everyone, I don’t think Stewart has seen my family since November of 2013. Sophie and her only cousin Bridon had as much fun as they could together since he is one and she is 4. My Dad set up a nice playground set in the back yard, and Sophie had a blast playing at “Grandpa’s Park”. 

We let Sophie make the announcement that we were expecting to my family when we were all together for dinner one night. They are all excited for us and it was fun to see their facial expressions in person since last time we told everyone through Skype. 

On Sunday evening we drove to Mountain Home and met up with Stewart’s Brother Alex and his wife Anne at a city park. Alex and Anne recently moved to Meridian, ID for Alex’s job so it was easier for us to catch up with them by meeting in the middle. Stewart and I had a good visit with them and enjoyed hearing about all of their new adventures. Anne is pregnant and due in October (same as time as my sister Emily). They seem to be doing well and Stewart was able to share our good news with them too. It will be fun to have cousins on both sides of the family close in age. 

On Monday Stewart and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary! We actually spent the day working on our car which was our main reason for going to my parent’s house, we wanted to take some parts off the car I wrecked and put them on the car we have now since it is the same make and model. We took the hitch off the first car and put it on the second car, traded the radio out, and a few other things. My dad was very instrumental in all of this since he had all the tools and the knowhow, I am so grateful for my father and his willingness to help us out.

Stewart’s job interview was scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday so we left Bruneau and drove 3 hours to Pocatello to drop Sophie off with his grandparents, Raymond and Carrol Hudson, who were in charge of driving Sophie to Idaho Falls to Juan and Camille’s house where Sophie had her first overnight sleepover without her parents. After we dropped Sophie off Stewart and I then drove back to Burley for Stewart’s Interview with Intermountain Health Care group.

When we got to Burley we took a tour of the town with a realtor. She showed us the town and some up and coming newer sub divisions (which neither of us liked) and then shared with us some of the history and community activities that happen in the area. I don’t know about Stewart but I found myself feeling like I would be ok to settle down and raise our family there. It was small and charming, and had a lot of fun history to it. Stewart got car sick while we were on the tour so we went back to the hotel earlier than planned for him to rest up before our dinner engagement with other medical professionals that evening.

Dinner was at a Stake House called Morey’s, it was a nice ritzy place for Burley. The Doctors that came were kind and I was grateful they brought their wives along. We were able to hear a lot about the town from them and I was able to ask a lot of my questions regarding things on my list. Stewart was also able to ask sincere questions about the job and the medical field. We both came away feeling positive about what we learned.

The next day, I dropped Stewart off at the hospital for his interview and then I drove to Jerome to meet up with my sister Emily and see her new house. We had a good visit and then drove to Twin Falls where we did some shopping and then met up for lunch with Margie before I needed to head back to Burley to pick up Stewart. Once I picked up Stewart we drove to Idaho Fall where we planned to meet up with Sophie and spend the rest of the week with Stewart’s family.

Stewart had a good interview; there are some things that we need to wait on before we will know for sure if this is the right job for him. But we both feel peaceful about the area and can see ourselves living there. We won’t know much more for a few more months still, but it was a positive experience.

Once in Eastern Idaho we were able to enjoy spending time with Stewart’s family. Again we had Sophie announce she was going to be a big sister while most everyone was gathered together. Again everyone was happy for us. Sophie was in heaven with her cousins Sam and Blaz. Sam and Sophie seemed to play really well together and were buddies most of the time. Juan and Camille were kind enough to let us stay with them again, and this time I did not offer to mow their lawn or help out because I always seem to cause more problems than intended.

On Friday we went to the Rexburg Temple, while there I almost passed out during the session but I pulled through without actually passing out like I did back in 2010 while pregnant with Sophie. We spend the rest of the day at Stewart’s parents visiting.

On Saturday, we drove back to Cheyenne. It was a long drive but we made safely. Now we are working on getting ourselves back into our routines. We look forward to the day we are closer to our families and won’t have to take such a long drive to see everybody.  How blessed we are tough to have our sweet families and their support without them it would be hard. Thanks to everyone for hosting us and making us feel loved and welcome. HUGS! 

On May 8^th Stewart and I learned some exciting news! We are Pregnant! Wahoo!!!!! It only took us four and a half years.  We are both so excited and can’t wait to share our happy news with everyone. Right now I am about 7 weeks along and feeling great and according to Stewart the baby is due about January 5^th. I knew something was up about 7 days after I missed my monthly and told Stewart I suspected I was pregnant. I asked him if I should take a test and he said I should wait but…. I just had to know so I took the test right before bed and it came back positive!  This whole month Stewart has been working nights at the hospital so I called him up and told the good news.  We expressed our shock and excitement and then together while on the phone we both knelt in our individual locations and offered up a word of prayer thanking our Father in Heaven of this wonderful gift. We feel so blessed and I can’t wait to share our news with Sophie who has been praying for a sister or brother for a few months now. We won’t tell her for w few more weeks still even though I really REALLY want to.

On the tenth of May we celebrated Mother’s day. Sophie and Stewart bought me some nice flowers and a colorful card that was actually a Birthday card that Stewart crossed out the words Birthday on and wrote in Mother’s Day. I felt so loved by them, I am grateful I get to be the wife and mother of Stewart and Sophie; they are two of the most important people in my life. As a gag gift Stewart brought me home a very large arrangement of funeral flowers that were left over from a funeral of a member of our ward. He had to go into church one evening for membership clerk duties and when he returned he had this very big arrangement of flowers with him, he told me it was a belated Mother’s Day gift. The arrangement was big enough I put them on the floor in front of our fireplace, and there they sat until I had to toss them out. My only regret is that I did not take any pictures of my flowers given to me, but they were beautiful.

Sophie had her first ever dance recital this past Friday (May 15^th) she did such a great job. I thought maybe she would be scared on the big stage with all those strange people watching her… nope; she did her thing and enjoyed every moment of it. I am so glad we decided to put her in dance last year, it has been good for her and she seems to be a natural dancer. It will be interesting to see if this is something she will choose to continue with as she gets older. Stewart had to be away for a chief conference this weekend in Seattle, WA so he was unable to come. Because of that I asked a good friend of mine to come and video it for me, that way I could watch it in person without having to worry about videoing it and still get a video for Stewart to see when he gets home today. She did a great job and it will be a video we will cherish for many years to come I am sure. 

Whenever Sophie and I are on a walk and Sophie sees a dandelion she will pick it and give it to me. Each time she gives me one she tells me it means she loves me. She calls them Dandies. It melts my heart each time. LOVE!

Sophie has been talking about learning to ride a bike with peddles for some time now. Stewart and I decided it would be a good investment so I started looking around at different yard sale websites until I found one we could afford and that looked like it would last a while. We found this little beauty for ten dollars on craigslist.

Sophie is smitten with it and calls it her Princess Dora bike. So far she is doing great learning to ride it. It took her a while but she has finally learned that she can’t put the brakes on and expect to keep going, since then she has been unstoppable. We are proud of her and all she is accomplishing these days. 

Here are a few more pictures of her washing her bike and then a video of her riding it.

Easter was swallowed up in the festivities of our birthdays this year, but here are a few pictures of Sophie’s Easter dress my mom sent her. She is absolutely beautiful if you ask me.

Do we have a birthday here? Yes we have a birthday here! April is birthday month in our home, Stewart and I both have birthdays this month and then there is Sophie who has her half birthday this month as well. We don’t really celebrate half birthdays but since Stewart and I are celebrating we include her by wishing her a happy half birthday. So needless to say our family started the month of April out in party mode.  We both had great birthdays and were spoiled with many birthday wishes, cards and a few gifts. We are very grateful for the love we felt from all our friends and families on our special days.

Stewart got a new razor head from me, a star chart from Sophie and a box of ensure because he asked for me to buy some for him and I wrapped it up for him to be funny. 

Stewart and Sophie made me some nice cards and got me a new hand mixer, since my last one broke around Christmas. My sisters sent me some essential oils and the book Unbroken for Stewart and me to read together. 

I have a group of dear girl friends in Cheyenne that I do a lot of activities with. So in honor of my birthday I invited all of my friends over and had a waffle party with them the day before my birthday. I made waffles and had some strawberries with whip cream; I also made two different kinds of syrup (buttermilk and Maple) to share. My friends were invited to bring a side dish to share but it was not a requirement. We had a great time! The kids ate and then played and us moms ate and socialized up until it was lunchtime. It was probably one of my favorite things I did to celebrate my birthday.

Stewart had the weekend after his birthday (which was also Conference weekend and Easter Sunday) off so we invited some of our friends from church to come over after the last session of conference for cake and ice cream. We decided to combine our cake into one, Stewart chose raspberry and I chose lemon, so our cake was a raspberry lemon cake and it turned out amazing! Good combination.  After cake Stewart decided that we needed to play some games with our guests, so we played a few rounds of signs and categories.  I thought he was crazy for bringing up the idea of playing games but in the end I think we all had a good time.  After our friends left we cleaned up and went to bed… Stewart had to work early the next morning and I was just plain tired, that’s what happens when you age. 

Our birthday cake, and us blowing out the candles (we opted to only put 12 candles on the cake as to not make a mess of the cake with wax).