Some updates

We finally moved and we love it at our new place! Our apartment stays cool, it has new carpet, and best of all it doesn't smell like smoke. :) Also, we finally have internet again, so I guess I can't use that as an excuse for not blogging anymore. It's fun to be in a new place and live so close to some great friends and family. Speaking of great friends and family we want to say thanks to Brady, (Bret's brother) the Iron Man, who helped Bret move most of our stuff. I got a phone call at work saying that Bret and Brady had rented a truck and moved most everything. I was definitely amazed. Also, thanks to Matt Harmon and Zach VanDyke for helping us on a mintues notice with the truck and your moving skills.

On another note, since we live so far away from friends and family in Utah, I don't get to show off my attractive baby belly to them.

Okay, so maybe it's not so attractive, but here it is. In the first picture I'm 18 weeks and in the second picture I'm 22 weeks.

IT'S A GIRL

I know I've been a slacker at this whole blogging thing, but this time I actually have an excuse - our internet isn't working. We should finally have internet again when we move next week , but I couldn't wait that long to share the following good news so I'm using the school's computer.

We're going to have a little girl join our family April 1, 2010 and we're really excited!

For the majority of my 18 week pregnancy I was convinced we were having a boy since boys seem to be the dominant gene in both Bret's and mine families. But as my ultrasound appointment got closer I decided it was a girl. I've been telling myself that I thought it was a girl because of the "mother's intuition" that you hear about, but the truth is I just wanted to contradict Bret and since he thought it was a boy, I guessed girl. And look who ended up winnning the guessing contest....me! It was a sweet, sweet day of victory. Okay, so it was nice winning but for reals it was a sweet day because we actually knew a little girl would be joining our family and we couldn't be happier! The ultrasound technician said that she was "really fast" and she was having a hard time getting a picture of her. That made Bret happy because now he thinks he has an athletic girl. Little does he know that she was just moving because of all the orange juice I drank before the appointment. Also, during the ultrasound the baby was punching and kicking me. At least that's what it looked like. Is it a bad thing my baby and I are already fighting? Hopefully it isn't a sign of things to come. Anyway, we're so happy to have a baby girl come into our family. She's healthy and everything seems to be going great. Let the shopping and floods of pink colors begin!

The Beginning of Year 2

So 2 posts in 2 days from me, wow! I'm impressing myself. Let's see how long I keep this up. =)

As most of you know Bret started his second year of school today, which is so crazy! The new school year also means that we've lived in AZ for a year. I guess the saying is true...time does fly by when you're having fun. Anyways, it was fun seeing Bret in his scrubs and getting back into the grind of things again. Since I don't have kids or kids old enough to take pictures of the first day of school, I made Bret take his picture. I'm sure he's embarrassed I'm posting this, but too bad, so sad, I'm doing it anyway!

Summer of 2009

I spent the first part of the summer in Arizona working and hanging out with some friends while Bret studied for his boards. The weather was surprisingly nice here in AZ during June, but then we went to Utah for a week during July 4th, came back and it was 118 degrees. YIKES!! So, while in Utah we really partied up the 4th! Here was our exciting day: We slept out the night before the Freedom Festival parade so we could have a spot. It made for a fun, long night. Luckily we had Colby, Blaike, and Madison there to entertain us! And my mom and dad gave us some food. At 6 that morning Bret went golfing with his dad, brothers, and cousins. After that we hit the annual Ross picnic for lunch, which was fun like usual, and then made our way to the annual Rayburn 4th of July party, which was a "blast" with lots of fireworks and delicious food. Needless to say it was a good trip and we definitely gained a few pounds with all the good food :) Oh yeah, while in Utah we also hiked Timpanogos Cave. Neither of us hiked it before, so we really enjoyed it.

We made our way back to AZ and Bret was busy studying. Then July 30th rolled around and Bret's boards were finally over! I wasn't working anymore so we made our way to Utah for 3 weeks. It was a fun, relaxing break. It was so great to see family and friends again!

We did too many fun things to list them all, but here are some of the major highlights of our trip (of course the main highlight was seeing everyone again!)

Highlights

1. Seeing Brandon open his mission call to Washington DC...congrats Brandon!!
2. Brent and Amy's wedding
3. Crystal and John's wedding
4. The Demolition Derby in Nephi - it was so fun seeing these old clunkers run into each other










5. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat











6. Fishing with the Gronemans. I caught my very first fish! The best part was that I didn't have to touch it thanks to Bret and his Dad.

7. Going to a cabin near Park City for a few days with my family - The only pictures we took were at a nearby resevoir where we went rafting.


















8. Bret really enjoyed golfing in Utah and went a lot.









9. Last , but not least, Timpanogos Cave

Life

Bret is studying and I'm really bored so I thought I'd blog about the random stuff going on in our life right now.

As most of you know we were planning on going to Canada for the summer to sell security systems but at the last minute our plans drastically changed. We decided not to go and Bret decided to join the National Guard instead. The National Guard offered a pretty sweet deal (hopefully it doesn't change)we just couldn't resist.
Now that we're staying in Arizona things seem to be working out better and it seems like we're supposed to be here.

Out of the blue the temp agency I work for called. With this temp agency I'm with you're supposed to call a couple times per week to keep your name on top of the "list." I hadn't called the agency for about a month and a half, but then out of the blue I got a call and they offered me a temporary job for 1 week. Unfortuneatley I couldn't do it because I had other obligations during that week.
I thought my chances were ruined because I passed up a job opportunity, but the next morning I got a call from the Temp Agency and they gave me an assignment that paid better and could possibly go through June. I just sort through paperwork, but hey it's a job and someone's got to do it :)

April

April has been a crazy but fun month. We've had some life changing plans, family in town, and we took a little trip to St. George/Zions.

Bret's family
The first week of April Bret's parents came into town. While they were here we carried on the same great traditions as usual. Some of our favorites include golfing and shopping. While the boys golf, the girls shop. It's quite fun. Another tradition is pedicures. This is Bri's favorite thing since it's so relaxing. Also, we know we're always going to eat well when they're here. Since Bret and I love our food, this was one of the best parts as well.
Although we loved doing these things, our favorite part during their visit was when they spent a night with us. We loved having company! We played a few intense games of Rummikub and talked for a bit. They were so fun to have around. Thanks mom and dad for coming to Arizona and making our week great!

St. George
After Bret's parents left we made our way to St. George where we met up with some of our "Utah friends" for some hiking, relaxation and good times.
On our way to St. George we got stuck in traffic for two hours at Hoover dam. Instead of driving the 6 hours it was supposed to take, we drove 8 hours. We arrived in St. George at 9:45 pm, which was just in the knick of time to hit Cafe Rio before it closed. It tasted so good and we were so happy we made it in time.
After Cafe rio we checked into our "classy" hotel the Cornoda Inn and Suites where we finally met up with our friends. It was so fun to see everyone again. Saturday morning we woke up to freezing cold rain and after some discussion decided to go to Zions despite the freezing weather. Saturday night we went swimming and hot tubbing. It was so fun! Sunday morning we packed up and left. Even though it was a short trip it definitely was worth going to see everyone again. We loved it. Thanks Steph and Trent for planning it.


Bri's Family
Before heading out of St. George we went to the St. George Temple for a few minutes. It is a beautiful temple! After we left the temple we drove to Hurricane to meet up with my mom and brothers (Tyler and Colby) who were on their way to visit us in Arizona. We then caravaned home. It was fun to have my family here. We played a lot of tennis, went swimming, relaxed, shopped, and went out to eat a few times. I had the chance to go to th Mesa Temple and perfom baptisms for the dead with my family. It was so neat to get to do that again.

Throughout the week our apartment got smaller and smaller as Trisha and Nate and dad showed up, but somehow there was enough room for 8 of us to sleep. Thanks everyone for coming down!! We loved having you guys here and hope you come back soon!!

Mesa Temple

Texas Roadhouse Birthday Celebration



Bret's Sim Lab
Claim Jumper - is that Harry Potter in background?!

An Update

So I've been a slacker at this blogging thing lately so I decided it was time for an update. Not much has happened since I last blogged, but the higlights are definitely my trip to San Diego and the disgusting pursuit of the best mustache in Bret's dental class.

California
The first of March Bret was nice enough to let me go to San Diego with my mom, sister, and grandmother. My aunt lives there and invited us to come down and stay with her and her 4 kids while my uncle was out of town. The weather was nice while we were there, but it definitely wasn't beach weather. In fact, most of the time we walked around the house with rice bags on our hands and feet. My grandmother even took her rice bag out of the house. It was pretty funny, especially since they're from Utah where it was in the 30s and San Diego was in the 60s.

Despite the weather we had a good time. We didn't really do much, but it was fun just hanging out with family. We got the opportunity to spend a lot of one-on-one time with my 4 cute cousins because my Aunt had appendicitis and was in the hospital and couldn't really move. Her kids are super cute. We went minature golfing one day and took a walk to the park. Alexis and Jackson, the two oldest, had a run-a-thon the day we left so we got to see them run. I even got to run with Jackson, which was pretty neat. That's basically my trip in a nutshell. It was a nice little vacation. Thanks Angie! (I will get more pictures soon)








Mustache March

Much to my dismay Bret's dental class declared the month of March as "Mustache March" The name is pretty self explanatory. Bret's always trying to find excuses to grow his facial hair and so he became really excited when he "had" to grow a mustache for school. Luckily I was gone for some of the growing out stage, but unfortuneately I didn't miss the Harley Davidson stache he shaved the other week. To his credit it turned out pretty good, but you can be the judge.

February

After we moved here and Bret wasn't required to shave for work, he started growing a beard. He definitely looks good with facial hair, but I like a clean shaven face better. So, after 6 months of facial hair, he surprised me and cut it. It's so good to finally see the face of the man I married again!! I love it. I doubt it will last long, but it's nice and smooth for awhile. Whoohoo!! (Bret does not want to be caught on camera so this is the closest I could get to a picture of what he looks like.)

This picture was taken at the amazing Valentine's Dinner Party we attended. Let me explain this party. Our friend Megan Armstrong put it on, and it was the perfect party. Every last detail was taken care of. The decorations were so cute. She made cute little nametags to put by our seats. The food was awesome. And she had the bar set-up with margarita and Pina Coloda mixes. During dinner we had background music, and the music had each couples' song on it. There were about 18 couples. Then we each got a CD of the background music to take home at the end of the night. To make the night even better, each girl got a rose with her initial to take home. It was a fun night and I'm thankful we were able to share it with friends. Thanks Megan!!

Go Suns!

Our conversion to the local sports teams continues. We had the opportunity to go to the Phoenix Suns game last Monday and had a blast even though our tickets were on the very last row. Luckily right after half-time we were able to sit on the sixth row by Todd and Ashley. It made a huge difference! Thanks guys!! The Suns ended up killing the Kings, but it was still fun to be in the atmosphere and see Shaq and Steve Nash up close!!

Do you see the wall behind us? Yeah, that's called the very top row

We received the opportunity to take pictures of the whole arena

Our seats were so high we got nose bleeds

6 Rows above the Kings Bench - that's what I would call good seats!

Thanks to our slow camera we got a pic of both Shaq and Nash

The Bret and Bri Show